The Zephyr Sequence
by Stormgirl415
Summary: Um, I suck at summeries, so here goes nothing...When the Legion meets a strange girl being chased by the LSV, it starts a whirlwind of events that leave questions at every turn. It's better then it sounds, trust me.
1. Chapter 1

Hi, yeah, this is StormGirl415, and this is my attempt at fanfiction, this is a story, well obviously I guess, so, please read it and let me know if you like it and tell me if there's anything I should change or correct or something.

Disclaimer: No, I am one of a million unlucky saps that do not own Legion of Superheroes. If I did we'd have a freaking third season right now.

Zephyr lurched forward in the seat, slamming her head on the control panel before her as one of the lasers reached its mark. She quickly sat up and rubbed her head, brushing her long black hair out of her face. "Computer, damage assessment." She knew that in an asteroid field like this, she could take a risk and hide before the cruiser found her and started shooting again.

"Main thruster has taken severe damage. Power level 36.5 percent and dropping." Zephyr bit her lip at the mechanical report. She knew that without that main thruster, she had about as much chance of outrunning that cruiser as a Raalian shorshic slug beast. "Computer, channel all remaining power from external thrusters to hyperdrive engine." She gripped the steering handle firmly as she came to a dead halt in regular space. "Activate hyperdrive……now!" She slammed the control as specks of distant stars became streaks in her viewscreen. Zephyr sighed and sat back, almost relaxing. Almost.

"Computer, how far will the hyperdrive engine be able to take us?" There was a slight pause as the computer went through the calculation.

"Power levels are dropping rapidly. Hyperdrive will lose power in approximately 3 minutes. Damage to main thruster created energy signature that will appear once hyperdrive is offline." Zephyr sat back, trying to process this information. Who knows if they-she-would be able to get far enough away so that she couldn't be tracked?

"Computer, where will we enter into regular space once hyperdrive is offline?" and we become sitting ducks? She thought bitterly.

"The Cheyenne prime nebulas and asteroid fields." Zephyr paled. She had seen images of what had happened to Cheyenne Prime when the Sun-Eater had come. Now she would be seeing it first hand.

Maybe if the Takron Galtos guards would keep a closer eye on their prisoners….she thought angrily, then shook her head. Angry thoughts would just distract her from what was to come and from what she needed to prepare for.

"Computer, will the pursuers be able to track us or scan for us at any point once we exit hyperspace?"

"Possibly, considering factors of scanner advancement onboard the ship." Zephyr said something in Japanese that was completely untranslatable before sitting back and considering the options.

Option 1: Simply give into whatever they wanted. Not a chance in the world.

Option 2: Send out a distress call. No, she thought, too risky.

Option 3: Fight back. She opened her eyes as she made her decision.

"Computer, activate all laser cannons and missiles. Once cruiser comes into range, prepare to fire." Zephyr quickly typed something out onto the computer console in front of her, accessing the weapons panel and arming herself as the cruiser came into view. She smiled in a way reminiscent of a predator. They wouldn't be expecting weaponry on a shuttle the size that she was riding, or the class. They would be in for a big surprise.

She could see it slowly come into view. Of course, she though bitterly, why would they hurry? As far as they were concerned, they though she was just a sitting duck, and easy prey.

"Target in range. Weapons systems functioning at 100 percent." She sat back and carefully aimed, just as the cruiser fired on her.

She felt the shockwave surrounding the ship, throwing her back as her ship tumbled through space. Slowly she came to a halt, thankfully still at a decent distance from any asteroids. "Computer, damage assessment!"

"Weapons systems offline. Navigation at 45 percent capacity, communications at 79.4 percent capacity, and life support at 67.3 percent capacity." Zephyr sat back, trying to process this information. These guys had really, really good intel. Then she whacked her head.

"You idiot, they have that stupid telepath Esper onboard. Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Zephyr finally calmed down. With her ship at barest minimum capacity, there was no way to get out of this one.

"Looks like I'll just have to take the fight to them." She muttered under her breath. Zephyr took a breath in, waiting for the cruiser to reach her, and most likely dock her ship. She'd be ready.

Lightening Lad looked over the navigation monitor as he finished typing the coordinates for the Cheyenne Asteroid field.

"How did the Legion of Super Villains get out of Takron Galtos?" Mused Bouncing Boy. "It wasn't a mass breakout; it was just that group of villains. And what in the name of the universe is so interesting about the Cheyenne system?" Shrinking Violet looked up at him from her station at the computer console. Ever since Brainy had left almost a month ago, she had been filling in as far as working with the computers and other technical equipment, analyzing situations and letting legionnaires know about a situation and everything about it. In other words, she had become the Legion's very own resident scientist.

"From the looks of it, they were tracking a much smaller ship." Cosmic Boy looked up at her. "Any idea as to what the ship is and what it could be carrying that the Legion of Super Villains wants so badly?" Violet shook her head. "The ship is a Starwing X2-47. It's a civilian model. People basically use them as private transport from planet to planet. No weapons, and they're used by a whole range of people from dozens of different worlds. They transport only a few people and there isn't enough cargo room for anything really dangerous or anything hugely valuable." Then she frowned. "Now that's weird."

"What?" Triplicate Girl looked over at Violet, waiting for her to continue. Ever since the return of White, Triplicate Girl was almost back to normal. Her costume was a little different, a mix of her original costume and the costume of Duo Damsel. Violet looked up at her.

"Scanners indicate that the Starwing _does_ have some sort of weapons systems, but only one passenger, the pilot. This makes no sense."

"Who cares why they want that ship, we just want to make sure that they don't get to that ship." Lightening Lad finally broke in. The rest of the Legion had to smile. He had a point. Whatever the LSV was up to, it was their job to make sure that they didn't get away with it.

"Saturn Girl, can you do a scan?" The said girl's eyes lit up for a moment, then went back to normal. "The Legion of Super Villains want something from that ship, but I can't figure out what. They don't know we're in the area yet, otherwise Esper would most likely be shielding all of their thoughts. Tharok, Mano, and Persuader are there, too."

"What about the Starwing?" Lightening Lad resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Cosmic Boy's commanding tone. It did get old after awhile.

Saturn Girl bit her lip. "The pilot in there is pretty good at shielding her thoughts. I can tell it's a girl, and she's about our age, maybe a little younger, but that's about it." Cosmic Boy turned to look at her. "Is she telepathic?"

To everyone's surprise, Saturn Girl shook her head. "No, she's not, which is making me wonder how she can shield her thoughts so completely. It doesn't make sense." Cham frowned. "Weird." She looked as though she may have continued until the sensor went off. "We're in range. I don't think they've spotted us." Bouncing Boy quickly reported. Lightening Lad smiled darkly. No one was going to admit it, but everyone really wanted to kick some bad guy butt.

"Get ready everyone. Triplicate Girl and Shrinking Violet remain in the cruiser and attempt to cripple their ship. Everyone else, get outside and get ready to for a fight." Most of the Legion flew out, exiting the ship and flying toward the ship. As they did, small dots exited from the other ship to fly out and meet them.

"So much for the element of surprise." Muttered Cham as they flew out to meet the Legion of Super Villains and the remains of the Fatal Five. He shifted into an enormous squid-like creature and went for Wave who immediately attacked with her strange blue hair. Lightening Lad aimed the laser canon on his arm, blasting Mano back a good distance until he turned and saw Tharok aiming at him. He quickly dodged and let the blast go past him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Cosmic Boy keeping Persuader at bay with his magnetic powers, and Esper and Saturn Girl in the middle of a mind blast war. Bouncing Boy slammed into Hunter repeatedly. Then he felt suspicious.

_Where's Tyr?_ Then he saw the Leader of the Legion of Super Villains flying full speed toward the smaller Starwing. He felt anger boiling up in him. That was one way to avoid a fight.

He looked over and saw that Cham pretty much had Wave out for the count. "Cham!" Chameleon Boy quickly turned. "Tyr's going for the ship!" Just then Tharok and Mano attacked him together, pulling his attention away from whatever Chameleon Boy was going to do.

Cham sped toward Tyr and the Starwing as fast as he could, hoping he could get to the ship and its pilot before Tyr did.

_I need a distraction._ He thought. Then he looked around and had an idea before grinning wide and shapeshifting.

Tyr sped forward, almost to the ship and the girl. He smiled to himself. "After we catch her, we won't have to worry about the Legion of Super Heroes anymore." Then he felt something small and hard slam the back of his head, knocking him forward and making him lose his balance. He turned and saw Cham, shifted into the form of a Corellean Zorblac, complete with tentacles that grabbed rocks and hurled them straight at Tyr.

_Shapeshifters._ He thought disgustedly. _Always trying to be tricky._ He aimed his laser, set on a very specific kind of charge.

Cham sped forward as quickly as he could, knowing he had to stop Tyr from……whatever he was trying to do. Just then a powerful shock hit his system. He reverted back to normal form just a few feet from Tyr.

"What the…." He tried shifting again, trying to give himself some sort of weapon…..and nothing happened.

"Surprised, Shapeshifter?" Tyr smirked. "A handy little gadget, isn't it? Always a good idea to know how to beat your enemy." With that he slammed a fist at Chameleon Boy, throwing him back as he held his ribs. He slammed against a nearby asteroid.

Tyr aimed the laser again, this time on a different setting. "Hope your Legion has enough members to cover for you." He smirked as the gun powered up. Just then, a small explosion went off behind Tyr, throwing him down again. Cham looked up. A girl stood there, probably 15 or something, maybe Asian, with large gray eyes and long black hair, a decent sized laser pointed at Tyr's back. She looked down at him.

"You know, It's strange that the leader of a group of Super Villains would take himself out of the fight for the sake of a single girl, Isn't it? If I didn't know better, I'd say you were being a coward." She tsked at him as he glared at her. He turned to show her some manners when he was knocked out by a long, strong arm from the gorilla-like creature Cham had become. He shifted back to normal.

"I'm just glad that charge didn't last longer." He said, almost to himself. Then he looked up at the girl. She stared quite openly at him, not giving away a shred of emotion. By now the Legion had beaten the villains and the Science police had come to cart them back to Takron Galtos. As the police took away Tyr, Cham looked over at her.

"By the way, thanks. That was a good shot. What was your name?" She smiled faintly. "I go by Zephyr." There was the slightest hint of an Asian accent in the way she talked, as well as a hint of dry amusement. "And unless I'm mistaken, you are Chameleon Boy of the Legion of Superheroes." He grinned. "Yeah, that's me." He looked over at Zephyr again. "Why were they after you?" Her smile faded quickly. "I don't know." She replied, not quite meeting his eyes.

Cosmic Boy flew toward them with the rest of the Legion. "Nicely done Chameleon Boy. You too….." He stopped, not knowing her name. She smiled faintly. "It's Zephyr, and I should be the one thanking you-all of you." She turned back to her ship and clicked her tongue. "This is gonna take a while." Bouncing Boy flew closer to take a look at the damaged Starwing. "Hate to break it to you Zephyr, but your ship isn't going anywhere until it has some serious repairs made." Zephyr nodded.

"In that case, maybe we can give you a ride to New Metropolis or some other place so that your ship can get fixed up." Zephyr stared at Lightening Lad before nodding cautiously. "If you don't mind, I would appreciate that."

Violet flew into the docking bay of the cruiser, looking over a data pad. The cruiser was already headed back for New Metropolis and the new legion tower. She didn't notice that she had company for a few minutes until she said something.

"That data pad must be pretty important." Violet looked around quickly to see the girl they had picked up in space-Zephyr-welding something on the side of her Starwing. Vi flushed in embarrassment. "Yeah, a little I guess." Zephyr pulled up her mask as she finished welding. "What's it for? Unless it's some sort of Legion information that you aren't allowed to talk about." She smirked slightly and Vi smiled a little.

"It's not a big deal, just some upgrades I was hoping to add to the mini cruisers. I wanted to make sure that the current systems were compatible." Vi floated over to Zephyr. "Did you want some help with the repairs?"

Zephyr shook her head. "Appreciate the offer, but I've made some changes to the ship that are pretty person specific. Besides, I was about to take a break." Zephyr sat down against the hull, drinking a bottle of water. Vi looked her over. Long black hair pulled back into a braid, black bangs hanging a little above her eyebrows, her eyes themselves a stormy shade of gray over a thin blade of a nose and a average seeming mouth. Average height and a little on the thin side, with angular features and sharp edges. She was wearing a simple black T-shirt, plain black pants, and flat black shoes. A jacket sat on the floor a little ways off, black of course, but with light blue patterns here and there.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a Coluan who is a part of the Legion of Superheroes who works with most of the upgrades and such?" Vi's smiled disappeared and she looked away. "He……left. I don't know if you've heard the rumors of what happened a month ago, but after what happened, he decided that he needed some time to go away, I guess." Vi shut her mouth, not wanting to talk about it anymore, not to mention the fact that this girl was a civilian and probably shouldn't be told details about inner Legion workings.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up." Zephyr looked away from Vi, apparently angry at herself for bringing up this point. "And to answer your question, I haven't heard many rumors about what happened last month. I don't pay attention. Many times, the truth is distorted when passed from mouth to mouth, especially over the course of a month." They both smiled as Bouncing Boy walked in.

"Hey Violet, the hyperdrive stabilizer is acting up again. I brought the equations, so all we need to know is how much we need to readjust it."

Violet sighed as she took the data pad from Bouncing Boy. She flew over and sat down on one of the Starwing's side wings. Zephyr climbed up to sit next to her as Bouncing Boy stood in front of Violet.

"What exactly are you doing?" Violet looked at the other girl. "The Hyperdrive engine on this cruiser can get a little wonky from time to time, especially when we make short jumps. So we need to recalibrate it from time to time. We don't like to clutter up Computo's data plates with the calculations, they can get pretty extensive, so it's easier if someone just does it through on a single data pad." Violet carefully worked her way through the equation as Zephyr looked over her shoulder. She looked back at her hands for a second and finger wrote something in the air rapidly before turning to the Legionnaires. "It's a factor of 4.06 percent with an inverse of 22.785 and a fluctuation of .3361." Bouncing Boy and Violet stared at her for a moment. Violet quickly turned back to the data pad and finished the calculations.

"She's right."

Bouncing Boy and Violet stared over at Zephyr once more. The girl shifted uncomfortably through their scrutiny. "What?" She finally snapped.

"How did you do that?" Bouncing Boy finally was able to ask. Zephyr played with one of her tools, not looking at the other two, and taking a moment before answering. "I have the ability to do complex math equations in my head. It's really not that big of a deal."

Bouncing Boy took once last look at the girl before Violet handed the pad to him and he flew out of the docking bay.

"I don't think even Professor Keiko could do an equation like that completely in his head." Zephyr looked back over at the other girl. "You should meet my siblings." She muttered. Then she looked over at Violet before she could ask anything. "Wait, you know Professor Keiko?" Vi nodded. "Yeah, when he was doing that round trip of schools of the universe, he stopped at our school at Imsk for a couple months. He was teaching a course on cybernetics, mostly with uses in protonics and reconstruction. Why?" Zephyr smiled. "He's from my home planet. At least, he's taught there for a long period of time. I took a class of his on nanotech." They looked each other in the eye and laughed until the danger alert went off a minute later.

Violet frowned. "What's going on?" She flew through the door, Zephyr running after her to the bridge, grabbing and pulling on her jacket on the way.

They met up with Chameleon Boy as they flew or ran down the hall. Surprisingly enough, Zephyr could run fast enough to almost keep up with the Legionnaires.

"Cham, what's going on?" Chameleon Boy looked over at Violet. "I really don't know. That's why we're headed for the bridge, right?" He grinned as they flew through the door to their stations. Zephyr stayed back at the door.

"Cos, what's going on?" Lightening Lad asked as he entered behind them. "It's appears as though the Scavengers are ransacking a Trininium plant not to far from here." Cham turned to look at Cosmic Boy. "And that's a big deal because……"

"Trininium is one of the most unstable substances in the galaxy. When contained and used in water cleaning systems, it's harmless, but under certain circumstances it can hold enough explosive power for a few ounces to take out half of New Metropolis." Violet quickly threw over her shoulder at Cham as they maneuvered toward the planetoid's surface. Cham stared at her for a moment before turning back to his own station. Ever since Brainy had left, Violet had acted less and less like her old self and more……icy. Cool. Intellectual. A little bit like Brainy when it came down to it. Or at least, Brainy in scientist mode.

Cosmic Boy turned to their guest. "Zephyr, stay on the cruiser and out of sight. We don't want any civilians to get hurt." The girl's eyes narrowed, but she nodded as they landed right next to the plant.

"Careful with that!" The lead Scavengers voice called out as one of them stumbled from the weight of the container they carried. "This cargo is worth more then any sniveling piece of technology you could find, and unless you want that to explode, you better watch it!"

Saturn Girl's nose wrinkled with distaste. "They just want to steal some Trininium. Probably to power some piece of stolen technology." Lightening Lad narrowed his eyes as he glared at this bunch of clowns. Cosmic Boy slammed the wall in, destroying the semi-quiet and attracting the Scavengers attention.

"It's those Legion heroes!" One of them yelled. They all dropped their burdens and turned on the laser cannons they wore on their wrists.

"Geez, these guys are original, aren't they?" Bouncing Boy said as he started bouncing-and slamming-Scavengers into the wall. Triplicate Girl split into three and kicked three Scavengers down as more walked toward her, firing. All three of her jumped into the air and combined midway, slamming a Scavenger into the ground before splitting into three and slamming more down. Violet and Cosmic Boy were causing havoc with the suits that the gang wore. Saturn Girl flew across the room as a Scavenger fired at her. The shot headed for her…then went through her.

'Saturn Girl' landed behind the confused Scavenger. He turned around just in time to receive a kick in the head from the real Saturn Girl. A Scavenger came up behind her.

"Saturn Girl, look out!" Lightening Lad threw a bolt of lightening at the Scavenger, right before he fired on Saturn Girl. She turned to him. "Thanks." He smiled. "Anytime."

"Oy, Legion!" They all turned and saw three Scavengers standing in the doorway. Between 2 of them was Zephyr, who appeared to be coming back to consciousness. The third pointed a laser at her. "Stop fighting or I'll fire!" The whole Legion froze, not wanting Zephyr to get hurt, and also not wanting for the Scavengers to get a hold of the Trininium. Everyone stood still, not sure what to do. Before a quiet voice broke the silence.

"Big mistake." Zephyr twisted herself, slamming one of her knees into her captor's stomach and then swinging around to punch the other one in the face. The main Scavenger fired at her, but she wasn't there. She had jumped up and over the Scavenger, higher then it was humanly possible for a normal person to jump. She landed several feet away, both feet planted firmly as the Scavenger's fired, their new goal to take down this new hero.

Zephyr smiled in a way that sent shivers up Cham's back. She twisted around as though preparing for something, then stepped forward with her palms out flat. Every Scavenger was blasted back into a wall, knocked unconscious.

The Legion turned to stare at the girl. Zephyr smiled. "And that's why you don't mess with innocent little girls."

"Ok, what did you do back there?" Was the first thing out of Cosmic Boy's mouth when the cruiser took off, leaving the Scavengers in the capable hands of the Science Police.

Zephyr shrugged. "A high knee kick, a punch to the nose, and a jump. Did I appear to do something else?" She stared up at Cosmic Boy. Being about the same height as Cham-maybe a little shorter-Cosmic Boy was much taller. The said person frowned deeper and Lightening Lad fought to hold in chuckles. Zephyr definitely had a talent to make Cosmic Boy mad. "I ment why didn't you tell us your power." Then he frowned again. "What exactly is your power anyway?"

Zephyr gave a slight smile. "I work with wind. Mostly I prefer to work with weather systems, but I control wind or air, depending how you look at it. And I learned martial arts at an early age, which has integrated with my style of fighting to produce the results such as those you saw today." Cosmic Boy just stared.

Lightening Lad stepped forward. "You still haven't answered the question of why you didn't say something about having powers earlier." Zephyr's smile faded. She turned away, staring out a window.

"I'm…..not very good at using my powers yet." She said, almost hesitantly. "My powers have a partial connection with my emotions. If I use them to much or I let my emotions control me, I have a habit of causing……accidents." She turned back to face the Legion. "I didn't want to talk about it because I was…..embarrassed about it." She flushed and turned away. A light hand set down on her shoulder. Zephyr turned to face Saturn Girl.

"Zephyr, we can understand that. We've all had problems using our powers at one point. Don't worry about it." Zephyr smiled. "Thank you Saturn Girl." She quickly brought her hand up to cover a yawn.

"Here, we've got some extra rooms on board. You can use one to try and get some sleep." Triplicate Girl led Zephyr, who was trying not to yawn again, out of the room.

"Really Triplicate Girl, I'm ok." Triplicate Girl opened up a door, then turned to the younger girl. "How long has it been since you've gotten some sleep exactly?" Zephyr though for a moment, then shrugged. "A full night's sleep? Don't know. I've been traveling solo in the Starwing for awhile." Triplicate Girl rolled her eyes. "You may want to get some sleep then. The last thing we want is for you to fall asleep if we get another call." Zephyr smiled. "Fine. Goodnight Triplicate Girl." The door closed behind her as Zephyr laid back on the bed. Sleep came quickly, and Zephyr let it take her.


	2. Chapter 2

"Zephyr? Are you awake?" Cham called through the door. "Yeah, come in." The door slid open and Cham walked in to be greeted by the strangest of sites.

"Good morning to you too." Zephyr stared up at the Durlan from the floor. Her head was propped up on her hand, which all came in between her legs. Her whole body was bent into a loop. Cham stared, trying to figure out what the heck she was doing.

"Too bendy?" Zephyr slipped back between her legs and returned to an upright standing position. It still took Cham a few second before he could say anything.

"Um….what were you doing?" Zephyr shrugged and stretched up toward the ceiling. "Stretching." She smiled at Cham's shock. "Any particular reason why you came knocking on my door?" Cham shook his head and came to his senses.

"We'll be landing in New Metropolis soon. Lightning Lad thought you might want to be awake when we got there." Zephyr's eyes lit up as she tied her jacket around her waist. "I'd like to see New Metropolis. Thanks." They walked out into the hall, Zephyr doing the occasional cartwheel. "Are you ok?" Zephyr looked over at the boy. "Yeah, why?" Cham shrugged and flushed a little. "Well, you seem…different today." Zephyr shrugged. "It's amazing the miracles a good nights rest does for a person." With that simple statement, they had arrived at the bridge.

"Good morning Zephyr. Sleep well?" Triplicate Girl smiled over at the younger girl. "Yes, thank you Triplicate Girl." She looked down at the approaching skyline of New Metropolis. "So, where do I need to be dropped off?" Zephyr looked over the Legionnaires faces, waiting for an answer. Cosmic Boy cleared his throat. "Actually Zephyr, we wanted to talk to you about that." The girl looked over at him, waiting. "We all discussed last night's events. It's obvious that you have powers and other abilities, and it doesn't seem as though you were in a desperate rush to get to a certain place, so we were wondering…" Cosmic Boy trailed off, apparently not sure how to continue. Zephyr stared at him expectantly.

"What do you think of joining the Legion?" Lightning Lad finally asked. Zephyr turned to stare at him, not sure of what to say. She finally was able to answer. "Are you serious? Is that offer real?" She asked, so softly that the others had trouble hearing her. Saturn Girl smiled. "If you were interested, your power could be a big help to the team." Zephyr opened her mouth, then closed it. She looked away from the Legionnaires, out the window. Then she faced them again. "This is a pretty big deal. Can I please have some time to think about it?" Everyone was a bit surprised, but Lightning Lad nodded. "Of course. The offer is open as long as you want it to be." Zephyr still seemed a bit shell-shocked by the question, but smiled. "Thank you." She stood by the window as the cruiser prepared the docking sequence to the tower.

"Are there any Legionnaires at the Tower right now?" She asked Saturn Girl. The older girl nodded. "Yes, Timber Wolf, Phantom Girl, Star Boy, and Dream Girl are there right now. They were keeping an eye on things in New Metropolis while we took care of the Legion of Super Villains." The cruiser carefully docked in the hanger of the tower.

Phantom Girl looked up from the data pad she was reading at the other Legionnaires. "Hi guys. I'm guessing the Legion of Super Villains is back in Takron Galtos?" Bouncing Boy nodded. Dream Girl looked directly at the young girl staying in the shadows by the door. "Hello. What's your name?" Zephyr smiled faintly and shrugged. "You're the pre-cog, you tell me." Dream Girl had to smile. "Zephyr, right?" the said girl nodded. "If none of you mind, I think I want to keep working on the Starwing." Lightning Lad nodded as Zephyr walked silently down the hall. Timber Wolf watched her leave from his seat, then turned to the other Legionnaires.

"Ok, I'll bite, what's she doing here?" Cosmic Boy sighed as he sat down. "Originally she was just a ship pilot that the LSV was after. She claims she doesn't know why. We found a band of Scavengers raiding a chemical plant, and she showed that she has powers over wind." He picked up a data pad and began to read.

"So is she joining the Legion? That'll be nice to get more girls in here." Phantom Girl smiled to let everyone know she was joking before looking at Lightning Lad.

"That's the thing. We offered for her to join the Legion, but she said she wants to think about it." Lightning Lad looked puzzled. "Normally people jump at the chance to join the Legion. It's strange that she didn't." Saturn Girl rolled her eyes at the boy. "Lightning Lad, everyone is different. We don't really know that much about her, so you shouldn't be so surprised at the fact that not everyone jumps at the chance to join the Legion."

Lightning Lad looked over at her, then flushed slightly. "You're right." He said simply. Bouncing Boy looked up from Computo's mainframe. "Looks like to much hasn't been going on around here." Timber Wolf shrugged. "A couple of robberies, some robot malfunctions, and a couple of escaped animals. Nothing too big." Triplicate Girl divided herself up and began playing chess on their circular, tri-color game board. Saturn Girl sat back next to Phantom Girl, and everyone began to just work on their own thing or drift to different areas of headquarters. Cham turned to ask Shrinking Violet if she wanted to play a holo-game only to see her back as she walked away.

"Where's she going?" He asked outloud. "Where do you think Cham? Where's she's been spending most of her free time-working on some project in Brainy's lab." Even though their friend had been gone a month, nobody-including Violet herself-called the lab anything else. Bouncing Boy gestured to Cham. "I'll play a holo-game if you're up to it." Cham grinned and picked up the controller. "Bring it on."

Violet let herself into the lab. Brainy's lab. She refused to think of it as anything else. She sat down at one of the worktables and began to tinker with the prototype of the new laser blasters for the mini-cruisers. Meanwhile her mind wandered.

Brainy. She missed him so much. She didn't have that many close friends on the Legion, and Brainy had been her closest friend. Even is it had taken her awhile to show him that Shrinking powers were useful. She smiled at that memory. Brainy had been surprised when she had told him about her knowledge of trans-neural protonics. As she calibrated the blaster's power levels, she thought back to their conversations on the cruiser before they had been able to reform Ayla, Lightning Lad's sister. Violet looked up from her work and looked around the lab. This place always seemed so lonely without Brainy in here. He was always a constant here, working on a new invention or program, making some upgrade to Computo, finding out information on the Legion's enemies……he was always here. And now he wasn't.

"What're you doing?" Violet looked up to see Zephyr in the doorway, leaning against the frame. "I'm working on a blaster prototype. Part of the system I was thinking about for the mini-cruiser."

"Yeah, I remembered you had mentioned that." Zephyr looked around the room. "This lab is full of Coluan style tech." Violet looked up from her work in surprise. "How'd you know…" Zephyr shrugged. "I've been around the block a few times." She sat down next to Violet. "What did happen that made him take time off?" Vi refused to look up from her work. "It's kind of a long story." Zephyr nodded. "Alright. I understand." Violet went back to her work. "Can I help out?" The shrinking girl looked up in surprise. "Um, sure. I need some converters installed in the main power grid of the system. Do you know how to do it?" In response she received a curt nod. For a while the two girls continued to work, sometimes talking, sometimes silent.

The emergency alarm went off, startling the two girls out of their work. They both quickly flew into the main room of the Legion HQ.

"What's going on?" Lightning lad looked over at her. "Comet and Cupid are out of their cages. They're tearing up New Metropolis!" Some the Legionnaires quickly flew out, Zephyr following, coming up behind Cham. "Who're Comet and Cupid?" He stared at her in disbelief for a moment before shaking his head and answering the question. "They're a couple of monster things from some alternate dimension. Fast, strong, and really, really ugly. And they have the worst bad breath ever!" Zephyr smiled slightly until they saw a car being thrown across the freeway. The transdimenstional monsters were ripping apart the road and knocking dozens of pedestrians out of the way. A couple of Science Police vehicles pulled up in front of them, lasers pointed.

"Alright, freeze if you don't want to…hey, get off!" One of the monsters, maybe Cupid, had bitten down on the police car and thrown it at the approaching Legionnaires. They all dodged just in time as the car crashed into another building.

"I am so sick of having to put you two back in your cages!" Lightning Lad fired at them. Both monsters jumped out of the way, splitting up. Saturn Girl, Timber Wolf, and Lightning Lad followed one, while Phantom Girl, Bouncing Boy, and Cham followed the other. Zephyr hovered in midair, unsure of what to do and observing the situation.

Saturn Girl projected some sort of red beast, at least 3 times the size of Comet. While it was distracted, Timber Wolf punched it hard on one side of it's mouth, knocking it over to Lightning Lad, who zapped it unconscious. Zephyr nodded. It seemed as though these guys had procedures like these down to an art. She looked over at the other Legionnaires.

Phantom Girl was trying to lure Cupid to scratch at her, going intangible ever time it attempted to do so. Bouncing Boy kept whacking into it in ball form, and Cham kept changing into different creatures to intimidate it. Suddenly it bit down on a power canister that was being transported by one of the trucks laying on it's side in the freeway. The electrical shock exploded out from it, slamming the three Legionnaires back into buildings and cars, unconscious. Cupid growled, then began to stalk toward the Legionnaires, like a predator getting ready to make a kill.

Zephyr made her choice. She swooped down and landed right in Cupid's path.

"Hey ugly! You missed one." She yanked off her jacket and waved it in Cupid's direction. The monster paused before growling at her and heading for her. She waved the jacket in front of him, letting him get just close enough before pulling it out of his way, and leaping to the side. "Ole!" The girl laughed. Cupid growled. He ran towards her again, all stealth and thought forgotten. Zephyr let it come toward her before turning and slamming her right heel into the side of its head. It came at her again and she slammed it backward with a blast of air, hard as a wall of metal. It shakily stood on it's legs again, and began running toward her when a bolt of lightning arced past her head and slammed into Cupid head on. Zephyr looked up. Lightning Lad floated in midair, his cannon still smoking a little. Saturn Girl floated beside him, and Timber Wolf was on the ground, holding an unconscious Comet. The other three Legionnaires were coming to.

"Ooph, what happened?" Phantom Girl asked. Timber Wolf helped her stand up, seeing that she was still a little shaky. "I think you got a little electrocuted." Bouncing Boy and Cham both stood up, groaning slightly. Cham looked over and saw Zephyr, and a few yards away Cupid. "Did you beat it?" Zephyr blushed slightly. "Lightning Lad was the one who knocked him out."

"Yeah, but you were the one who held him at bay long enough for me to get a clear shot." Lightning Lad pointed at the black liquid that she hadn't even noticed that had spilled over part of the freeway. "If you couldn't have gotten him off that oil, I wouldn't have gotten that shot without torching half of the freeway."

Zephyr simply blushed a little deeper before flying up and starting to head back toward the tower. She stopped for a second, then looked back at Lightning Lad who, like the other Legionnaires, was helping the Zoo keepers load Comet and Cupid into a transport cage to get them back. "Hey Lightning Lad." He turned to face her. "About that offer to join the Legion…I think I'll take you up on that." He smiled. "Good to know. We can have you sworn in when we get back to HQ." Then he frowned. "Speaking of that, how are you flying without a flight right?" Zephyr rolled her eyes. "Use your brain Lightning Lad. Wind powers, remember?" With that she began to fly away, the other Legionnaires around her.

"What do you think?" Zephyr walked in, fully dressed in a new uniform. Primarily black, with a silver stripe extending from the high neckline to the belt around her waist. Black pants covered the top of silvery boots, and black sleeves flared out a little around her hands. A silver band right next to a blue band wrapped around her elbows, and right in the center of the streak of silver in deep blue was her logo, a tornado. Her long black hair was pulled back in a braid, and her eyes were alight with excitement.

"You know, you still need to pick out a codename. Any ideas in mind?" Timber Wolf asked lightly. Zephyr frowned. "I already go by a codename. Why should I change it?" Everyone stared at her. "What? It's illegal for people other then Superheroes to go by a different name? Besides, a Zephyr is a type of wind. It fits fine." Saturn Girl looked at her, then at Lightning Lad. "She has a point." The older boy nodded. "It works. Are you ready?" Cham walked over with the black case in his hand. He carefully opened it, revealing the Legion flight ring and the multifunctional logo belt. Zephyr smiled as she pulled both on, then held up her had.

"To the Legion of Superheroes, I make this solemn vow: To use my powers for good, to fight for justice and protect the innocent, to aid my fellow Legionnaires in times of peril, and to keep their secrets safe. I choose a name to honor the heroes of the past. I am Zephyr."

Zephyr walked down the hall toward Brainy's lab to see if she could find Violet. Being a Legionnaire almost felt like it had a sense of purpose, something she had lost for so long. Maybe here she could leave behind the past that had haunted her for so long. She shook her head. _Not going to think about it, not here, not now…_

"Zephyr!" the said girl quickly turned to see Cham running down the hall towards her. "Hey Cham, what's up?"

"Lightning Lad put us on afternoon patrol shift, we'll have to get going soon." Zephyr blinked. "Uh, yeah, sure, that sounds good." She began to walk after him. "What part of New Metropolis are we going to be patrolling." Cham smiled. "Mostly Northside, in the whole tech district. There's also some really nice scenic parks and buildings and stuff up that way too. I think Lightning Lad wanted you to have some sight-seeing time. It's a pretty quiet area" Zephyr smiled. "How thoughtful of him."

They flew off, getting a bird's eye view of all the area. "That's the main bank. Kind of boring, but I guess to a lot of people it's a big deal. Over there is the museum of Aerospace technology or whatever. It has video files all the way from the first space launches over a thousand years ago. Hard to believe things were ever like that. That's the science institute over there, I guess it's some really big tech school. Over there is the Superman museum." Zephyr stopped in midair and laughed. "A whole museum for Superman?" Cham nodded. "Yep. It's kind of interesting. It's pretty easy to tell which museum it is though." Zephyr saw that statue and smiled until they heard the explosion. Smoke began to rise from one of the buildings. "I'm guessing that's not normal." Cham shook his head. "Let's check it out." They flew down and landed in front of the building. Smoke poured out of the windows, and Science police stood stationed with blasters pointed at all the openings. "What's going on?" Cham asked the nearest policeman. He grumbled a little, then told them.

"Some new gang that's hijacking the technology in this institute. They've got hostages, at least 6 students. We have to out wait them." Cham and Zephyr's eyes met and they both knew what they had to do.

"Keep the perimeter secure." Zephyr said as they flew toward the entrance of the building under the cover of the smoke. Zephyr pushed the air around them, creating a bubble of fresh air. "Do we need reinforcements?" Cham nodded. "I sent out a distress signal. Phantom Girl and Timber Wolf are patrolling the West side, they should get the signal and be here soon."

Zephyr nodded as they landed outside of one of the doors. They could here rough voices talking inside. "Yeah, I know boss…..yeah, we got the tech, but there's a bunch of cops outside, and those Legion people are probably going to be here soon." With that Cham busted the door down in monster T-rex shape. Zephyr flew in after him, wind twisting crazily around her body. Inside were at least 10 of the gang members, and 6 students of the institute against a wall, shaking. All of them were armed with high level blasters. All of their heads were covered, and they were all swathed in black cloth. They looked up in surprise before leveling their blasters and starting to shoot. Cham slammed into three of them, knocking them back across 2 lab tables before they came to a halt. Zephyr twisted around and with a roundhouse kick slammed one guy into the wall. Another came at her from behind, but she twisted around and slammed one of her hands into a joint at the man's shoulder, making him fall to the floor in temporary paralysis.

"Enough!" The two heroes looked up. One of the gangsters had pulled one of students against him, like a human shield. A smaller blaster was pointed at the girl's head. Both of them froze.

"That's more like it. Now stay still while we pack up this tech, or the girl's brains become this class' next dissection." He roughly prodded the blaster into the girl's skull. Zephyr slowly looked over at Cham. "Is it just me, or does this seem extremely cliché?" A streak of silver flew across the room and hit the gang members sleeve, pinning his arm against the wall as the girl ran away from him. Two more small silvery blades glinted in the girl's hands. Cham grinned as he morphed into a gorilla and twisted a bar of steel around the gangsters. Zephyr opened one of the windows and called out to the Science police that everything was ok.

As the police walked away, one of the gangsters yelled out something in a different language that made Zephyr wince.

"What did he say?" Asked Timber Wolf. He and Phantom Girl had arrived a couple minutes before Zephyr had opened the window. Zephyr flushed a little. "I'd rather not translate. Let's just say that he really, really doesn't like me or Cham." Cham laughed at that.

"Nice job today with that robbery you two." Zephyr shrugged and Cham grinned. "We've had it tougher." Lightning Lad rolled his eyes before turning to Zephyr. "Let me guess. You're curious about the knives the police mentioned?" Lightning lad nodded. Saturn Girl stepped forward. "Zephyr, why didn't you mention those?" Zephyr shrugged. "I only use them in emergency situations. I didn't think they were that important." With that she unsheathed 2 blades from her sleeves. Short and slim, they glinted in the light, the hilts simple brown, although both had strange designs on the metal near the base. She calmly slid them up her sleeves again. Everyone was staring at her. "What? So I prefer an old fashioned approach to fighting. Big whoop." Phantom Girl chuckled. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" Zephyr grinned. "That's me." Bouncing Boy walked in. "Hey Lightning Lad, have the Science Police made any progress with identifying what gang these guys belonged to?" The said boy shook his head. "No. Apparently only 3 or 4 of them even speak English, the rest speak Japanese or something. The only clue is the weird tattoos." Saturn Girl frowned. "Tattoos?" Lightning Lad shrugged. "All of them have some sort of snake tattoo on their heads." Zephyr's eyes widened in what looked like shock before she went back to looking normal. Saturn Girl noticed and looked over at Timber Wolf. He had seen the younger girl's reaction as well and nodded slightly. Saturn Girl turned back to Zephyr. "Do you know anything about these people Zephyr?" Zephyr looked down as everyone stared at her. "Well…" The girl seemed very hesitant. "You might want to give the Science Police the name Serpents to look up in their database." Before anyone could say anything else, Zephyr asked her own question. "Where is everyone else now?" Phantom Girl explained the Legionnaires frequent patrols through space as everyone else wondered about their new comrade's past.

Zephyr sat in the kitchen, waiting for her water to boil. Everyone had quickly gotten over the fact that she knew the name of that gang and had gone on to do their own things. Still Zephyr shifted uncomfortably at the thought of the gang. "It was just a coincidence." She said out loud, as though that would make the fact more substantial.

"What's just a coincidence?" Zephyr jumped as Timber Wolf walked in. Just then the timer on the oven went off. Timber Wolf walked over and pulled out a tray of cookies from the over. Zephyr had been wondering what was in there. "Nothing. I didn't know you liked to bake." She said, quickly changing the subject. Timber Wolf looked over at her, then nodded. "Let me guess, you weren't expecting that?" Zephyr shrugged. "A little, but hey, I like drawing and painting and stuff like that, so I shouldn't be talking." Phantom Girl floated through the wall and sat on the counter. "Hey Timber Wolf, hey Zephyr. Are those chocolate chip?" Timber Wolf nodded as he set them on the cooling rack. Zephyr looked at the other girl. "Any other emergencies?" Phantom Girl shook her head. "No, just regular old New Metropolis." Zephyr chuckled. "Pun intended or unintended?" Phantom Girl's embarrassed smile was all the answer she needed. Timber Wolf cleared his throat. "Something bothering you Phantom Girl?" Phantom Girl scowled. "Just my mom. I love her, but she drives me crazy! Even after how many times I've helped save the world and her life, she still sees me like a little girl. It's annoying!" Zephyr chuckled and they both looked at her. "Sorry Phantom Girl, but that kind of sounds like how most moms are. I think they're supposed to seem like that to their kids."


	3. Chapter 3

Zephyr walked in the main room of HQ the next morning, quietly sipping a mug of tea

Zephyr woke up in the middle of the night, drenched in terror of her nightmare. She looked around, remembering where she was before her heart stopped beating a million miles an hour. She sat back against the wall, going over the dream. The same dream that had been plaguing her for years.

_It wasn't the same as what happened. _She told herself. _The man wasn't that tall, and my brothers didn't die that night. It was just a twisted dream of a memory._ Zephyr slipped out of bed and into her uniform. _Some tea will do me some good._ She walked down to the kitchen and got herself a mug, pouring herself a steaming mug of plain green tea. As she drank it, the last of the nightmares shivers went away. She looked over at the clock and her mouth twisted in a grimace.

_3:00. Great._ Zephyr shook her head and walked back to her room, pulling out one of her candles and a stick of incense. She carefully crossed her legs and took a deep breath, allowing her mind to flow down into the calming state of meditation.

"Zeph! Are you awake yet?" Cham knocked on the door of his friend's room. "It's almost time for breakfast." Zephyr opened the door. She looked a little more tired then usual, but other then that she looked fine. "Hey Cham. Yeah, I'm awake, no worries there." Cham looked past her and saw the candle on the table, half the size it had been when Zephyr had lit it up 5 hours ago. Of course, Cham didn't know that.

"Um, what's with the candle?" Zephyr looked back at it. "Oh, that? It's not a big deal, really." She closed her door behind her and walked with Cham down the hall.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Cham rolled his eyes. "Simulator training. It's boring, but we do have to keep up training somehow, according to Mr.Pompous." Cham did a couple seconds of morph of a cartoon version of Cosmic Boy before returning to normal. Zephyr smiled.

"Has he always been like that?" Cham pretended to think about it for a moment. "Pretty much. Cosmic Boy is a decent leader, he's just always dedicated to the rules when they won't always cover a situation." Zephyr smirked a little. "I see."

Zephyr looked around the huge Simulator chamber again. It was all wired, the floor had an almost honeycombed look, and the walls converged at the top to form a dome. From an observation window where the control console for the sim chamber was located, Bouncing Boy and Shrinking Violet looked out at their friends.

"Alright, everyone ready?" When the 5 teens in the chamber nodded, Bouncing Boy and Violet typed in a few commands. "Computo, level 1." Instantly the chamber changed to resemble a desert. Destructor Bots and Dominators created ranks on the dunes.

"Let's go!" Lightning Lad let loose with his cannon as Saturn Girl knocked over bad guys with mind blasts. Timber Wolf jumped up to some of the robots and slashed them to pieces before they knew what hit them. Cham morphed into a giant T-rex creature, slamming into Dominators and Destructor Bots and hurling them away. Zephyr simply slammed them back with a wall of air.

"Come on Bouncing Boy, that was way too easy." Lightning lad looked up at his friends in reproach. Bouncing Boy smiled. "This is only level 1. Computo, level 2." More Dominators and Destructor Bots disappeared, probably twice as many as the first time. Again, the Legionnaires beat them easily.

"Come on, is that really the best you've got?" Timber Wolf called out to the pair in the deck. Bouncing Boy rolled his eyes. "Computo, level 3." This time, the scenery changed to a thick, dark jungle, very much like Raal. Destructor Bots and Dominators appeared, this time true numbers camouflaged by the environment. Zephyr listened for movement behind her as Destructor Bots, larger then the ones before, exploded from the woods behind her. Turning quickly, a tornado erupted from her hands, catching all bad guys in the immediate vicinity and throwing them into simulated jungle a few miles away. Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Timber Wolf were all holding their own, and Cham was doing fine as well. Bouncing Boy leaned back in his chair until all the bad guys in this level were gone.

"Computo, level 4." Even more bad guys appeared. Zephyr blew a strand of hair out of her face. Now she saw why Cham thought this was boring. Zephyr called up a tornado again, but this time instead of blowing away, the Destructor Bots sunk thick metal fingers into the ground and held on tight. Zephyr frowned. This needed a slightly different approach. Instead of one large tornado, she separated it into several smaller, more intense tornados, each ripping up a Destructor Bot. What she didn't notice was the Dominator robot coming up behind her.

"Zeph, look out!" Cham knocked it away from his friend as she came out of her focus on the tornados, each dissipating as she stopped focusing. She turned around to look at Cham, then crumpled to the floor.

"Woah! Stop the Simulation!" Bouncing Boy quickly turned it off, revealing the chamber in its usual form. The other legionnaires ran over to Zephyr, who had pulled herself to a sitting position.

"Are you alright?" Saturn Girl asked, concerned. Zephyr managed a smile. "I'm fine Saturn Girl, really." Sensing that the younger girl was lying, Saturn Girl's eyes lit up before returning to normal. "Does the start of a migraine count as fine?" She asked. Zephyr flushed. "It's no big deal. I'll take some painkiller and it'll go away." Bouncing Boy looked a bit concerned as well. "That might be enough Sim training right now. We'll have to do something other then plain old fighting next time." The legionnaires left and flew out into the hall when Zephyr suddenly noticed a strange light started glowing from behind them. It was sort of purple-white-blue, and spun, growing from the size of a pinprick to a small Christmas tree. Zephyr cleared her throat.

"Guys…" everyone looked back at the growing light. Everyone looked surprised when a shape began to fly through. The figure grew until he flew out of the portal. A cape settled behind him as the man smiled. Not just any man.

Superman.

Zephyr stepped back as everyone went to greet the Man of Steel. She didn't know him, and she didn't want to intrude in a greeting among friends.

"Hey Supes!" Cham and Superman high-fived. "Hi guys." Lightning Lad shook his head. "What's going on now?" Superman rolled his eyes. "What, I'm not allowed to come by and visit when there isn't some major bad guy on the loose?" Everyone chuckled. Zephyr smiled as they all greeted each other like the old friends they were. Then Superman turned in her direction.

"Hi." Zephyr blinked, then walked forward and shook the older boy's hand. "Um, hi."

"Did Lightning Lad give you a hard time at Legion auditions?" The girl blinked. "She didn't get in with Legion auditions. She was being attacked by the LSV and then showed that she had powers." Bouncing Boy filled in. Zephyr looked over at the older boy. "'She' has a name you know." Superman chuckled a bit. "They might know your name, but I don't yet." Zephyr smiled faintly. "I'm Zephyr. Do you want me to be polite and ask your name or should we just assume that I already know it?" Everyone laughed. Cham patted her shoulder. "Nice one." Superman just shook his head. "So, what's been going on in Legion Headquarters?" He asked as they all flew toward the main room. "Not much. The LSV got out of Takron Galtos again, the Scavengers tried to steal from a Trininium plant, and there's been a couple situations with some new gang called the Serpents. Nothing that major." Timber Wolf said dryly. As they flew in they saw Phantom Girl and Triplicate Girl. "Hey Superman!" Said Triplicate Girl in surprise. "What are you doing here?" Superman threw his arms up in mock exasperation. "Can't I come for a visit without it being an attack from some time traveling dictator?" Phantom Girl chuckled. Zephyr went to the kitchen for some painkiller. Superman looked around. "I'm guessing Brainy still hasn't decided to come back yet." Everyone suddenly got more serious. Saturn Girl looked over at the Man of Steel.

"We haven't heard from him since he left. We don't even know where he is right now." Everyone looked sad for a moment.

"Will you all stop moping?" Zephyr had walked back in with a mug of tea, one hand on her hip. "It isn't going to help anything, and it makes it hard to have a good time anywhere. I may not know much of what made Brainiac 5 leave for now, but I do know that although people don't blame themselves forever, everyone needs to deal with those feelings in their own way. When Brainiac 5 is ready, then he will probably get in touch with the Legion. Now if nobody minds, I think it's time for evening patrol." She set her mug down and walked out of the room, leaving behind the surprised Legionnaires. "When did she know so much about what people think?" asked Cham.

Zephyr's eyes swept over New Metropolis as she kept an eye out for danger. She had been partnered with Cham again, who this time was very quiet. He seemed to be trying to say something, although he wasn't sure how to. Zephyr finally decided to take pity on him.

"Cham, whatever you're trying to say, say it." Chameleon Boy winced. "Well, how much do you know about what made Brainy leave?" Zephyr shrugged. "Something about some robot he built or something taking over his system and running a bit wild until the Legion beat him." Cham sighed. This was going to take awhile. "That's a really, really, really simplified version." Zephyr looked up at Cham, focusing her clear gray eyes on Cham. "Then what really happened?" Cham didn't meet her eyes for a moment, then looked at her. "Well, you know how Brainy was Coluan, right?" She nodded. "Well, I guess somewhere in his system there was leftover data from his ancestor Brainiac 1." Zephyr looked surprised. "The terror of Kandor? But that was before the Great Crisis!" Cham shrugged. "Don't ask me. Anyway, Brainiac 1 took over Brainy's system and made him do some pretty nasty stuff. We almost lost Superman cause Brainiac 1 had Kryptonite with him. He knocked out Lightning Lad, Violet, Sunboy, Star Boy, Matter-Eater lad, and me on his way out. Then 1.0 or whatever you want to call his ancestor went to join Imperiax, but then he went against Imperiax and….well…to use 1.0's words, deleted him, and digitized Validus, and took control of the Coluan Hive mind, then tried to digitize the galaxy until Superman and Kel went into his head and helped Brainy beat his ancestor." Zephyr had listened to the whole story quietly. "Ok, so if his ancestor is gone and he helped to beat him, the why did he leave the Legion?" Cham sighed. "This is the part where everything gets wacky. Somehow Brainy turned human." Zephyr looked very surprised. "Yeah, like I said wacky. Superman talked to him before he left, I think it was something like Brainy still felt guilty about what he had done and that nobody was going to forgive him." Zephyr blinked, then nodded. "Ok. I think I get it. You were right, the way I heard it was a very much a simplified version. I guess the transition of being a robot and then becoming human would shock anyone." They flew in silence for a little while until they arrived back at Legion headquarters.

"NO!" Zephyr yelled as she woke up, breathing hard. She looked around for a minute until her brain registered that she was in Legion Headquarters. She fell back against her bed.

"I so have to talk to my subconscious about these dreams." She looked at her clock. _5:00. Could be worse._ Zephyr stretched and did a little yoga, but her heart just wasn't in it. The nightmare still haunting her waking conscious, she got dressed. "I'll get some breakfast. That'll calm me down." On impulse, Zephyr grabbed her sketch-pad. Thankfully, there was nobody in the kitchen at that time as she got her fruit and yogurt and sat down at the table, beginning to draw.

She was still sitting there, empty bowl and a sketch or two later, when someone walked in. "Good morning." Zephyr looked up at Superman, who had just walked in. "Morning." Zephyr didn't care if she was being rude, she kept drawing. "What are you working on there?" Superman sat across from her with a bowl of cereal. Zephyr kept drawing, but let the Man of Steel look. It was a very good sketch of Chameleon Boy, down to the quirky smile and antennae. "Wow. That's good." Zephyr shrugged. "I like to draw." The Pad was mem-paper, so basically she would draw on a blank page, save it, and then the sketch would be saved in the pad's data banks. She reached up and flipped through a few pictures, showing Superman Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Bouncing Boy, and Triplicate Girl before coming back to Cham. Strangely enough, they were all labeled with the person's name and a date from the last few days-the day she had drawn them maybe? "It looks a lot like the actual people." Zephyr shrugged. "They're decent. It's all about practice." She looked up at the most celebrated hero of the past with a critical eye. "Why are you up so early anyway? Morning patrol doesn't start for another couple of hours, and normally the Legionnaires who aren't on morning patrol take a little bit to wake up." Superman grimaced. "Somehow my clock was set for the same time I get up for work, and I can never fall back asleep after it goes off. What about you?" Zephyr simply shrugged.

"Something to do with that nightmare?" Zephyr stared at him in shock. "Superhearing." Zephyr nodded before turning back to her sketchpad. "So basically you just up and decided to come to the future and help out the Legion just for the heck of it?" Superman smiled wryly. "Back home right now there aren't many bad guys on the loose. I figured if there wasn't anything I could do there maybe I could help out some here." The girl nodded. "That seems logical." Superman blinked in surprise at the girl's momentary resemblance of Brainy.

Zephyr stood. "Well, if you'll excuse me, since I have all this time before the day really gets going, I think I want to work on fixing my ship a bit more. I think he's offended that I haven't been paying any attention to him." She blinked, then flushed when she realized how that had sounded. "Sorry, I've been through so much with that Starwing I think I've gotten more to thinking of it as a living thing more then a ship, you know?" Superman smiled and nodded. Zephyr picked up her sketchbook and began to walk out of the room, then stopping and turning around. "Are you angry at him?" Superman stared at her. "What?"

"Are you angry at Brainiac 5 for what happened with his ancestor?" Superman stared at the girl in shock. "Of course not. As far as I'm concerned, he faced his fear and won. Why the heck would I be angry at him?" Zephyr simply blinked. "Just trying to figure a few things out." She finally said before leaving the room.

Zephyr demagnetized the outer shield on the hull of her Starwing to open up to the damaged life-support systems. The girl's mouth twisted into a grimace. Half of the wire had been knocked loose and tangled, the coolant had spilled everywhere, and the main turbine for the system had a damaged propeller. Zephyr pulled out a cloth and began to wipe the coolant, wiping away grayish-black liquid to reveal the cool metal underneath. Every motion was methodical as Zephyr contemplated a few things about this new life.

There was no way around it, she loved being a hero and helping people. Everyone was nice, she got to fight and learn about her powers, and she got to see new views of one of the most famous cities in the world. _Still, _she thought, _I miss my family. I wonder what they would think of all of this._ At that point she was wiping coolant out from under one of the power converters when she felt something odd. Zephyr frowned and pulled her hand back before reaching under again and grabbing the item. It was small and round, like a bump in the hull, but the metal had some sort of etching design that she could feel under her fingertips. She got a hold of it and tried to pull it out. It stuck fast.

"Figures." She grumbled. Pulling out her hand, she reached into her tool kit and began to pull the bolts off the converter. Soon enough she had the converter off and on the ground to reveal the small object.

It was about an inch in diameter, made of a darker alloy then what her ship was made of. On the front was some sort of logo, but it was too dark to make out the design. Zephyr pulled out her suction tool and screwed the hatch over the thing before turning it on. It resisted for a few moments, then simply popped off. Zephyr caught it in her hand before turning it to look at what "it" was.

It looked like a transmitter disk, but there was no outlying antennae to broadcast information. It might have been a piggy-back tracker chip, but then why attach it under a power converter where normal charge was blocked out? Zephyr frowned, then checked the time to see if anybody would be in the lab at this time.

Violet didn't even look up from her work when the door hissed open or when footsteps echoed through the room. It was only when she felt a light tap on the shoulder that she looked up to see Zephyr standing there.

"Hey Zephyr. What's up?" Zephyr leaned back against the desk and showed her the strange disk in her hand. "Think you can figure out what this is?" Violet took the disk and looked it over. "I found it under a power converter on the Starwing, and it doesn't look like any sort of transmitter or tracker I've ever seen." Violet stood up and walked over to another desk where she turned on a bright white light and set the disk down. She tapped a few keys and a microscope slid out of the wall. Violet took a close look at the disk. "Do you have any idea what the logo is?" Zephyr squinted. In this light, it was a little easier to see the design. "It looks like some sort of L, but it's definitely not Legion make. I really don't know." Violet pulled out a few small tools and ran them along the edges, trying to open it. "I think it's Magtech. It attaches itself to any sort of alloy with a magnetic signature, and if it's between to metallic alloys and one of them has a stronger magnetic signature but it's attached to the other one, it will adjust itself to attach to the other alloy. It's not used that much anymore. Well what do we have here?" The disk had slid open, revealing a tiny computer chip. Violet carefully pulled the chip out before walking over to the computer terminal and sliding it in. On screen dozens of long data streams ran vertically. "Vi, what is it?"

"It was only a carrier pod for this data chip. Someone must have wanted to get something to someone using your ship. Is the power converter new?" Zephyr frowned as she thought back. "Fairly. I had to replace the converter a few days before the LSV were trying to catch me." Vi nodded, deep in thought. "Maybe we just found the reason they were looking for you." Violet began to type, data streams scrolling down the page. "Can you access the data?" Vi shook her head. "The whole thing is firewalled and has at least a few encryption codes. It'll take awhile to get through the system, and even then I'm not sure if I'll be able to access it." Zephyr grimaced. "Sorry to drop it on you all at once." Vi smiled. "Don't worry about it. It'll give me something interesting to do." Zephyr smiled and patted Vi on the shoulder. "Just don't work too hard, got it?" Vi nodded, only half focusing on what Zephyr had said.

_One Week later…_

Violet walked into the main room of the Legion HQ, biting down on an apple as she sat by Cham and Zephyr. By now the whole Legion knew about the encryption codes that Vi was trying to figure out.

"Hey Violet. Had any luck with those codes?" Cham sounded pretty chipper, but Vi still looked irritated. "Barely any. I can't figure out what half the stuff is. I've never seen code writing like this." Zephyr patted her back. "You've been doing the best you can, which is more then any friend can ask for. I think you need a nice long break from that code. It's probably nothing anyway." Violet continued to eat her apple. Zephyr stood. "Well, if you guys will excuse me, I have to go on afternoon patrol with Superman, and you're with us Vi." Shrinking Violet blinked, then stood up. "Some fresh air will do you some good."

Superman, Zephyr, and Violet all flew out of the tower. Cham had told Superman about Zephyr's momentary fainting spell in the simulation chamber and was keeping a fairly close eye on her to make sure it didn't happen again. Even though she hadn't had another, Superman had heard her yelling from nightmares in the middle of the night more the once. Violet had barely been out of the lab all week trying to figure out that code. Being outside was doing her some good as well. Today they were patrolling West side, right by the freeway where Comet and Cupid had gotten loose last week.

Zephyr smiled at the cool feel of the breeze on her face. Here, summer was definitely coming to an end, but she was fine with that-she loved autumn. The wind twisted around her, tossing her braid and clothes around as her grin widened.

_Great day, isn't it?_ Zephyr opened her eyes and stopped in midair, looking around. She could have sworn someone said something.

_Yeah, absolutely gorgeous weather._ _Can't wait to spend time with the kids later._ Zephyr looked around. This time it was a different voice. Both sounded like the average middle age man, but they were to high up to hear anyone, save Superman's superhearing. She looked down at the ground. She could see two businessmen walking across a parking lot for the Magrail train. Could she have picked up some sort of hearing power?

"Zephyr? Are you feeing alright?" Superman and Violet had noticed that their comrade had stopped. Both looked at her with concern. "I'm fine. Really, it's nothing." She smiled reassuringly as they started flying over some of the residential areas of New Metropolis, some apartments and flats and condos. Violet's eyes looked over the area, looking over the small pocket parks and roadways and paths between buildings. Then she saw something that wasn't what you would expect.

"No way." She whispered, coming to a complete halt in midair. Superman and Zephyr stopped as well. "Violet, what is it?" The Shrinking Girl was staring at one of the doors of the residential buildings, the flats. The other 2 heroes followed her gaze. A young man was unlocking one of the doors with a bag over his shoulder. It would have been a sight commen to most teenage boys coming home from school or work, except for one thing.

This boy had green skin.

"I think that's Brainy." Violet whispered again. "How many other green-skinned humans are there?" Superman nodded at her words. "Maybe we should talk to him." Zephyr kept her mouth shut. She didn't know Brainiac 5, she didn't really have a say in this. "Maybe we can talk to him about coming back to the Legion. If he doesn't want to that's fine, but if he reconsiders…" Violet smiled. "Let's try. If nothing else we can ask him for help on the encryption code, that'll bring him back for a day or two. He can never resist a challenge." Zephyr gestured toward the buildings. "Do you two want to give it a shot, or do you just want to yak like a pack of nannies all day." Violet led the way down to the landing where the door of the flat was. She reached out to knock, then hesitated. Neither she nor Superman were really sure about this.

"Here, I'll do it." With that Zephyr leaned forward and knocked a few times then stepped back with a slightly self satisfied smile. The door opened to reveal a slightly puzzled face that gave way to an expression of surprise.

It was Brainy. 


	4. Chapter 4

Brainy just stared at Superman and Shrinking Violet for a minute, still looking completely surprised. None of them were quite sure about what to say. Zephyr had stepped back a little, into the shadows.

"Erm, did you want to come it?" Brainy asked, shifting from one foot to the other. "Sure, thank you." Superman said for all three heroes as they walked in. The main room was pretty bare, the furniture in it obviously rented with the apartment. Pieces of computers and other machines were everywhere, and yet it wasn't by any means messy. Order in the chaos. Brainy sat down at the table to finish putting together a handheld computer he had been fixing.

"Was there something you wanted?" He asked quietly, still working on the computer, not looking up at anybody. Violet answered.

"We saw you come in here, we were wondering if you wanted to come back to the Legion now." Brainy froze in his work, slowly looking up at the shrinking girl, disbelief written clearly on his face. "It's true Brainy. The Legion hasn't been the same since you left. I've only been here for a week and it doesn't feel anywhere near the same." Brainy looked over at Superman, then back at Violet before looking down at the computer again. "I don't know."

"What?" Brainy stood and walked over to the window. "I don't know if I wish to return to the Legion. Right now at any rate." Superman and Violet exchanged a surprised glance. Brainy noticed. "After what I did last month…how can I make up for that?" Violet walked over to him and set a hand on his shoulder. "Brainy, it wasn't your fault. You didn't do those things, your ancestor did. You beat him, what's stopping you now?" Brainy turned back to her for a minute, then looked back out the window. "That still doesn't change the fact that what happened was my fault. I should have fought him harder, or done something. I shouldn't have given in to him. Why would the Legion want me back now?" Superman looked at him sternly. "Brainy, you faced him and won. You've always been at the Legion helping people and doing the right thing. We need you back at Legion HQ." Before Brainy could say anything else, Zephyr finally jumped in.

"I know we've never met, and even I can tell that people at the Legion miss you Brainy. So quit doubting yourself and just answer a simple yes or no question: do you want to come back to the Legion?" Brainy stared at the three of them for another minute before smiling faintly. "Well…possibly a visit, just to see." Everyone smiled. "It'll be good to have you back on duty Brainy."

Lightning Lad leaned back against the back of the sofa in the main room and Superman, Zephyr, and Violet walked in. All three of them were smiling. Lightning Lad rose an eyebrow. "Did you have a good patrol?" Violet exchanged a glance with Zephyr. "Well, we met an old friend." Saturn Girl looked up from the data report on Computo's mainframe. "Who?" Superman stepped back to reveal someone in the shadows who, when walked out to the light, had green skin.

"Brainy?" Brainiac 5 shifted his weight from side to side and didn't look up as everyone stared at him in shock. "Hi guys." That was about all he had time to say before Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl, and Triplicate Girl ran over to him and hugged him in a welcome back hug. He blinked in shock as everyone else seemed to wake up.

"Brainy! Geez, where have you been all this time?" Lightning lad asked, grinning from ear to ear as he clapped Brainy on the shoulder. Cham high-fived him, and Timber Wolf and Bouncing Boy patted him on the back. Brainy looked dazed.

"You ok Brainy?" the green-skinned ex-coluan shook his head as though clearing away some thoughts before smiling. "Just a little surprised. I wasn't expecting such a welcome." Phantom Girl rolled her eyes. "Brainy, get real. We all missed you." Brainy gave another smile. Violet blushed ever so slightly. Brainy was definitely different now. He acted more human, warmer, more open. Well, she thought dryly, what did you expect?

"May I place my things in a room please?" Brainy asked, picking up the bag he had packed. Leaving the room with a smile, Brainy walked down the familiar halls of his home.

Violet walked over to the lab later. Now that Brainy was back she wanted to move her tools out of there. She knocked on the door. "Brainy, are you in there?" "Yes, come in." The door slid open. Brainy was sitting in from of one of the computer monitors, making a few small upgrades. Violet walked over to the station where she had been primarily working.

"You did a good job." Violet looked over at the boy. "What?" Brainy turned his chair so that he was facing her. "With the technology you built into the Legion equipment. It's all good work. I'm impressed." Violet blushed deeply. "Thanks. I just upgraded a few things and fixed what needed to be fixed. Not a big deal." Brainy smiled and stood. "I wanted to say thank you Violet." She stared at him. "For what?" He grinned, a little embarrassed. "Working with the Legion technology, keeping an eye on Computo's upgrades, and…well…helping me come back." She leaned back against the desk, looking over at him. "I was a bit confused for awhile there. I suppose I'm trying to say that I appreciate you and Superman and Zephyr convincing me to come back." He finally looked up at her, smiling. "I did miss it here." Vi smiled. "It wasn't a problem." Slowly, Brainy walked forward and briefly embraced her. She stiffened, a little surprised because this was not something Brainy would have normally done, then relaxed and hugged him back. They separated, smiling. Then Violet's eyes lit up. "That reminds me, I have something you might want to see." She walked over to the station with the computer chip, Brainy in tow. She turned on the mainframe as now-familiar streams scrolled up and down the screen. "Vi, what is this?"

"That's just it, I'm not sure. It's the data from a chip that was found inside of a magtech pod on the side of Zephyr's ship, under a power converter in the hull. You'd have to have pretty specific instructions if you wanted to know where to find it. I've been trying to decode this stuff for the past week and I can barely figure it out. As far as I can tell, it has a level 6 firewall and 4 or 5 levels of encryption codes. Seems like whatever is on this chip is extremely important." Brainy watched the girl as she talked, seeming to evaluate what she was saying. "When we first met Zephyr, she was being chased across space by the LSV. This might have been the reason they wanted her so badly." Brainy nodded and sat down, rapidly typing commands into the mainframe. "I'm impressed that you got as far as you did. This was probably designed by a level 9 intellegence at least." Then he seemed to realize what he had just said. "Sorry, that probably sounded presumptuous." Violet shook her head and rolled her eyes, smiling slightly. "It's fine. Although it is a little annoying that you're making more progress on that chip in a few minutes then I did over the course of a week." Brainy chuckled.

"I should be able to decode it, but it will just be a bit time consuming." Violet smiled and patted his shoulder before she went back to the desk she had been working at. She noticed her schematics for that new system for the minicruiser still sitting there. _Well, as long as I'm here…_

"Hey Brainy, mind if I finish working on something in here?" Brainy, totally absorbed by the code, gave a brief nod. Violet set down her tools and sat down, putting the details onto her project.

Triplicate Girl stood outside on one of the outer decks of the Legion HQ. The wind tossed her tri-colored hair around as she watched the sun set on New Metropolis, just enjoying the feeling of being whole. Now that she had felt that kind of separation, it felt good to be one person again. Without really thinking about it, she split into her three selves. White sitting on the rail, Purple standing with her arms crossed, Orange leaning back against the rail.

"Things are definitely good right now, aren't they?" Orange said, feeling the evening breeze wash over her. White smiled dreamily. "Yeah, they are." Purple laughed. "Let's see. Imperiax and Brainiac are both gone, all the other bad guys are in Takron Galtos and will probably stay there, we got a new legionnaire who's a girl, and Brainy came back. What's not good?" All three nodded their heads in agreement before looking out at the city. "You know, we've been here so long, I'm really starting to think of Earth as our home instead of Cargg." White and Orange nodded in agreement. "I know what you mean. We've been here since the Legion started." Orange suddenly giggled. "What's so funny?" Asked White. Purple tapped her foot patiently as they waited for Orange to stop giggling. "I was just thinking about how cute Bouncy looked back then. Things don't change much do they?" They all burst out into laughter. Suddenly the door slid open to reveal Bouncing Boy himself walking through. Seeing all of the Triplicate giggling, he felt suspicious.

"What are you all laughing at now?" this set the girls off laughing again. In truth, Bouncing Boy was happy that they Triplicates were laughing now. When she had been Duo Damsel she had cried so much, and even afterwards had been very serious until White had come back. To see her laughing now was so nice.

"Oh, it's nothing." Said White. "Just something funny to us." With another laugh they melded back into Triplicate Girl again, leaning against the railing and smiling. Bouncing Boy walked forward to stand by her.

"Nice view." He said quietly, looking out over the city. Triplicate Girl turned around to face out. "Yeah, it is." They smiled at each other and then both blushed and looked back out at the city, their hands just touching.

Zephyr was reading a data pad in the main room as Cham, Superman, and Lightning Lad walked in. Cham sat down next to Zephyr on the coach.

"What'ch ya reading?" Zephyr looked up and blushed slightly, turning the data pad off. "It's nothing, just a story from awhile ago." Cham blinked and tried to crane his neck to look at it. "Is it good?" Zephyr blushing ruined her tone of indifference. "If you're into this sort of thing." Lightning Lad leaned against a chair near Saturn Girl and Superman sat in another one. All of them just hanging out, reading or typing or in Superman's case, attempting to play Cham in checkers to teach him the game. And failing miserable.

"No Cham, you only jump the other person's pieces when they're diagonal from yours….no, only when the space behind them is clear……no, you don't get kinged for reaching that side of the board, you have to reach my side of the board." Zephyr exchanged a smile with Saturn Girl.

"Will all Legionnaires please come to the main room?" Brainy's voice came through the rings. He sounded almost worried. The five looked up. Seeing that they were already in the main room there wasn't a need for them to move. But what would make Brainy sound a little nervous?

Brainy and Vi flew in first. Violet looked confused as well, but Brainy did seem a little nervous. The other four Legionnaires currently in the tower flew into the room shortly after.

"Everyone here? Good. I have something important to show you." He turned around and sat in the chair in front of Computo's mainframe, sliding the little computer ship into the terminal. "I was able to decode the chip that Zephyr found on the side of her ship. It was the reason the LSV were chasing you. Someone was going to get in contact with them." With that he typed a few commands as a holoscreen beamed out of Computo, projecting the upper half of a man sitting in a chair. The man sat back, his face in shadow, but his silhouette was clear.

"This message is exclusively for the Legion of Super Villains. We have contacted you in the past and you are the only reason that you are out of Takron Galtos should you receive this message." Zephyr shivered. She had heard some hard voices before, but this guy took the cake in pure icy, reptilian quality. "As you know our organization is on edge for discovering lost technology of an ancient race-technology that could be used to reshape the galaxy into an empire. The power to be found will be great enough to bring whole worlds under our mercy, to rule this galaxy, and would defeat your foes, the Legion of Super Heroes. In this goal we are united. I cannot have these ridiculous do-gooders attempting to stop me. Part of this bargain would be to destroy the Legion. Should you choose to do as this message says and follow these orders, you will be richly rewarded. Should you choose not to, your punishment will be just as great."

"If my sources are correct, you should have a telepath onboard. Esper, if I'm not mistaken. Scan the mind of the pilot of this ship and learn the location of her home planet. Go there and capture whatever there is of her immediate family and bring them to us. From what our studies have shown the technology can only be activated by those who possess a specific gene of sorts in their genetic make-up. Sources indicate that one of them has the specific gene that will make this technology accessible. Try and keep them unharmed if at all possible."

"As a token of my goodwill, I am sending schematics for new weapons that we will have the ability to build once we possess this technology. I have a feeling you will be impressed. Do not attempt to contact us. We will contact you."

With that the recording ended. In it's place diagrams flooded the screen. Brainy typed something into the mainframe, focusing on one of these weapons. It looked a little like a Takion cannon, but only half the size in terms of scale, much more streamlined, and absolutely deadly.

"I was able to start scanning through these schematics. This weapon is only one of seven others. They are calling it a Kalshian beam. From what I've been able to determine form the data and diagrams, if it was built it would be able to create a gravity field of black holes to redirect the balance of an entire solar system, or on a cruder scale could simply create black holes near or on planets and stars. It only requires 20 of the power needed for a Takion cannon, and can absorb energy from any source, not just electricity. A weapon like this would be deadly to unleash across the galaxy. And this is only one possible weapon."

Everyone was silent with shock. Then Superman turned to look at Zephyr. "Well, it explains why the LSV wanted to catch you so badly." Zephyr nodded ever so slightly, her face pale. "My family is in danger, isn't it?" Lightning Lad watched her. "It sounds like it." Zephyr ran her fingers through her hair. "What kind of technology are they after?" Asked Bouncing Boy. Leave it to him to ask something practical.

"From what I've been able to determine, it is very old. Even older then the technology used to open a gate into the Phantom Zone. It's also very advanced, but I've never seen anything like it before. There is only one civilization I can think of that might have had technology this powerful so long ago, and nobody is even sure that this civilization was real."

"Brainy, stop skipping around and tell us what this technology might be." Timber Wolf finally broke in. Brainy took a deep breath. "I believe that our mystery villain has found some way to access technology from the ancients." Seeing the looks of confusion on several faces in the room, he clarified. "The ancients were supposedly the most advanced race in the galaxy, and supposedly existed thousands of years ago. They had great power and were apparently the first race to ever achieve space travel before humans had even moved past the medieval era. Then they disappeared. No one is really sure what happened to them, or, as I said before, if they even existed. They're just a myth." Triplicate Girl bit her lip and Cham looked nervous. Zephyr finally spoke.

"Well, we know what they want. What now?" She looked in the general direction of Superman, Lightning Lad, and Brainiac 5 as she said this, a little unsure as to who was calling the shots. Lightning lad scowled a little, then made an executive decision.

"From what we heard, your family is in a lot of danger. We probably should find them and see if we can protect them. We also need to determine more about who this man is, and more about his source of technology. Zephyr, tomorrow morning some of the Legion will come with you to get your family. We'll have to do some research to find out more about this technology and just how big this organization is-or who they are to start with."


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry, it took me forever to realize that you can't really edit the stupid things after they've been posted. Anyway, thanks to 1000GreenSun and Brainiac5 for commenting on my work, I really do appreciate that. Enjoy!**

**I don't know why I have to say this cause it's a little obvious, but I don't own LoSH, and sadly never will.**

"You know Cham, I heard that the Legion cruiser was a level 7 war class starship. Unless I've gotten really bad at figuring out ships, I could swear this is smaller."

Cham grinned. "That's Legion mobile outpost now. We use it for missions that are farther from earth or are in space and need more firepower. This is basically the same cruiser style that Imperiex blew up, only it has more upgrades and less of a chance of blowing up-even if it doesn't have neo-leather seats." Zephyr smiled as the atmospheric thrusters lifted them off the planet surface.

She looked out one of the viewscreens on the bridge of the cruiser. Earth was growing smaller and smaller as they exited into space, reaching an area where they could exit into hyperdrive.

They being Lightning Lad, Superman, Cham, Brainiac 5, Bouncing Boy, Saturn Girl, and herself.

"Zephyr." The girl turned and faced Lightning Lad and Superman. "Yes?" Lightning Lad looked like he was waiting for something. "Lightning Lad, can I help you?"

"Zephyr, we still don't know what your home planet is." The girl colored. "Right. Sorry. With all the rush I forgot. I could have sworn I already told you. Yeah, anyway…my home planet is Kaligary." Everyone turned to stare at her. "Kaligary? That's on the other side of the galaxy." Zephyr shifted. "Yes, I know." She turned and accessed the navigation panel, setting a course for her home planet. Pretty soon they were in hyperdrive.

"Well, the trip will probably be a few days." Bouncing Boy noted. Lightning Lad nodded. "Zephyr, can you tell us a little more about…Zephyr?" The girl had left the room.

"Zeph? Are you ok?" Cham found Zephyr a few hours later on the observation deck. She was sitting in front of the window watching streaks of stars pass by. "You kind of took off in a hurry from the bridge. Anyway, Bouncing Boy was going to start playing old movies. We wanted to know if you were interested." Zephyr blinked, then looked over at the Durlan. "I don't know right now Cham." Chameleon Boy frowned. Zephyr sounded almost a little upset, even though she looked…well, not calm exactly, but like she wanted to be left alone.

"Zephyr, what is it?" The girl pulled her legs up close to her and rested her chin on them. Not looking at Cham, she answered.

"I'm scared." Cham's eyes widened in surprise. "What if we get there and they aren't there? What if they've already been captured by this 'Organization'? I can't even get in touch with them cause we're to far away." Cham walked over to her and set a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him. "Zephyr, we've kicked the Fatal Five's butts a million times, we've beaten the LSV just as many times, we've gone against Scavengers and the Dark Circle, we were even able to beat Imperiex and Brainiac 1.0, we'll get there in time and I don't think your family will have anything to worry about. That organization is probably quaking with fear at the thought of the Legion of Superheroes." Zephyr laughed at Cham's goofiness. "Seriously Zeph, everything is gonna turn out fine." The girl smiled. "Alright Cham, you've convinced me. What movie did you say Bouncing Boy was going to play?"

Superman looked over as Cham and Zephyr walked in. Zephyr looked happier at least now then she had been before.

"Good, you guys are here. We're trying to pick between Vampire Mummies part 3 and It Came From the Slime part 6. What do you guys think?" Zephyr shrugged. "The mummy movie sounds good." Zephyr took one of the chairs as the light darkened slightly to allow the movie to play. Zephyr leaned forward toward Superman as the movie began playing. "Has he always liked old movies?" Superman chuckled. "As far as I know."

Zephyr tossed another piece of popcorn in her mouth, watching as Vampire Mummies chased unsuspecting tourists through a boggy swamp. Really, what did Bouncing Boy see in these old movies? There was always a monster, they killed a few people, someone comes along, they save the day, bada bing bada boom. And they almost always took place in some creepy old castle or mucky old swamp or some sort of dark setting in a world where the weather depended on the person's mood. Where was the variety?

She reached for the popcorn bowl, then realized that they had finished off the popcorn. Zephyr stood and picked up the bowl.

"Zephyr, where are you going, you'll miss all the goo!" Zephyr bit her lip to keep herself from laughing at what Bouncing Boy had just said. "Relax Bouncy, I'm just going to refill the popcorn bowl." She left the room as someone screamed. Whether it was a character from the movie or Bouncing Boy again, she wasn't really sure. Arriving in the kitchen, she pulled out the container with the popcorn when it hit her.

Intense pain slammed through her skull, like someone had taken an old fashioned railroad piton and was hammering it into her skull. The container fell from her hand to the floor with a clatter, scattering kernels everywhere. She staggered to the side before getting a grip from the counter to keep herself from falling. Her vision had gone fuzzy, and there was a loud screeching in her ears.

"Zephyr? Are you alright?" As if down a long hallway, Zephyr heard Superman calling her. She couldn't answer. Her head pounded, each beat making it feel worse, and she felt as though she was going to be sick. She lost her grip on the counter and hit the floor, her head between her hands. Tears of pain squeezed out from her eyes.

"Zephyr!" She thought she may have heard someone come in and call her name. A blur of color maybe? A snippet of sound? Then she lost consciousness.

Cham watched as Brainy turned on the scanner in the medical bay to look over Zephyr. When he and Superman had walked into the kitchen and had seen her fall on the ground, they had rushed her to the medical bay. The scanner encircled her with it's rings. She still looked like she was in pain, even though in theory she couldn't even feel anything.

"How is she?" Bouncing Boy broke the silence. Brainy and Saturn Girl, who had been running a mind scan on the girl, turned to him.

"Physically, she's fine. I can't find any logical reason as to why she would collapse like this. Saturn Girl, has your mind scan turned anything up?"

"No, I can't get through." Saturn Girl sounded worried. Lightning Lad set a hand on her shoulder. Cham looked over at Brainy. "So what do we do?" Brainy kept looking over the screens as though he had missed something. "Unfortunately, without any way of knowing what made her faint, we can't risk waking her up. It could just hurt her even more. We'll have to wait till she wakes up." Cham looked back at her. Superman ran his fingers through his hair. "Let's hope she wakes up soon."

Zephyr felt like she was drifting. She was in some sort of strange blue place, like an endless sky on earth. After the pain, this was almost pleasant. But _where_ was she?

Suddenly she felt something pulling her. Faster and faster she rocketed through the sky, into a place that looked like space. Suddenly she stopped. She was looking at a planetary system that surrounded a giant red star. Rings of dust and ash circled it, making it almost look like the pictures of Saturn she had seen. There were 4 planets maybe, the closest one to the sun dark orange and tiny, the third planet glittering like a ball of frozen water.

_I am here._ Zephyr looked around, expecting to see the talker. No one was there though. _I am here. Please hurry._ Then Zephyr felt the whole world fade into darkness.

Zephyr blinked. Light filtered in through her eyelids. She could feel linen under her hands….where had that come from? She finally opened her eyes all the way, feeling pretty decent. At least compared to her last memories of being awake.

"Zeph? You're awake!" Zephyr pulled herself in a sitting position. Cham was standing next to her bed, looking thrilled to see her. Brainy stood behind him, a data pad in his hands. Zephyr rubbed her eyes. She still felt stiff. "How long was I out?"

"About one full day." That woke Zephyr up. She had been like that for _one freaking day_?! Zephyr swung her legs out of bed. "Actually Zephyr, we wanted to talk to you." She bent down and began pulling on her boots. "Yes, what's wrong?"

"About this fainting spell. I crossed referenced all of your symptoms that we knew of, and we still weren't able to find any possible cause of this." Brainy hesitated for a minute, but Zephyr knew where he was going.

"Let me guess. You want to know if I have some sort of condition that makes me susceptible to fainting spells." Brainy nodded. "To answer the question, I don't. Not that I know of anyway." She shrugged. "So, we're entering the Tanabi system soon, right?" Brainy nodded as the three of them flew toward the bridge. Zephyr turned to Cham. "So, how'd the movie end?"

Superman turned when he heard the doors slid open. Brainy drifted over to the navigation station, and Cham flew over to his area. Zephyr stood by the transmissions screen.

"Can I talk to you all?" Everyone turned to her. Zephyr normally didn't like to draw attention, but when she did she was good. "Before we get to Kaligary, I should probably tell you a few things about the planet so that you know what to expect. Also…well…there are a few things about my family you should know. Computo, the files that I downloaded earlier." On the screen popped up a planet view of Zephyr's home.

"Kaligary is a center of learning and culture throughout the United Planets and much of the known galaxy. There are at least a few hundred colleges and institutions throughout the planet, covering everything from Advanced Magnetics to Zoology. There are artifacts in the museums dating thousands of years back. They even have old chemical engines and the vacuum tube from the first computer ever, and artifacts from civilizations that are nearly 6 thousand years old." She paused. Everyone there looked suitably impressed. She continued. "Right now it's spring, so the only issues as far as weather and atmospheric distortion is the occasional storm. Several of the mountain ranges contain high quantities of magnetic substances, so communications and tracking isn't always as reliable as it normally is. In my own hometown, there is the Tridium College of Fine Arts, the Thompson Medical Institute, the Blue Mountain School of Robotics, and the Museum of 2000. It contains artifacts dating back about a thousand years or so." She sent a slight grin at Superman. "If I recall correctly, they even have a Superman wing of the museum, if you were interested."

"There aren't many spaceports on the planet that can carry a cruiser this size, and none are anywhere near my hometown, so we'll have to dock at the Gattaca Spaceport and take a minicruiser down to the planet surface."

She paused, touching the screen and shifting the files to reveal holos of two people.

"These are my brothers." She touched one holo and it became larger, the other one compacting for later. It showed a teen with dark sunglasses holding some sort of staff.

"This is my older brother, Artemis. He's 2 years older then I am, probably won't be surprised when we arrive, and has probably already devoured all of the books at our library." She made the adjustments on the screen to bring up the second holo. This boy had slightly longer hair. It fell a little above his eyes and was shaggy, but he still looked fine. His eyes were visible, and they were a little darker then Zephyr's, more intense.

"This is Shade. He's my twin brother, and unfortunately older then me by about half an hour. Although you'd never guess it. He likes to work with his hands on anything-machines, decorations, metal shop-anything. He's also a real grouch in the morning, and he can even kick my butt in martial arts and weaponry." She smiled faintly. Cham was wondering about when Zephyr had started making cracks at people. She touched the screen and the holos disappeared. "There are a few more little things you should know about my brothers. It's a little…complex, but it's important."

"Basically, both of my brothers have powers. Or at the very least they are gifted."

Everyone looked at her in surprise, if only because they weren't quite expecting that. Most of their siblings if they had any weren't super powered, save for instances like Lightning Lad's where they were given their powers as opposed to being born with them.

"Artemis has healing and regeneration powers. In his own case, he's a very fast healer when he concentrates on healing himself. During a fight for instance if he's injured, he's focused on healing the whole time, therefore giving the impression of regeneration. It also means that he has a very strong immune system. I don't remember the last time he got sick. In the case of other people, he can heal physical injuries like cuts and broken bones as well as detect illness and disease. Also…" She stopped, then shook her head. "Never mind." Lightning Lad's eyebrow rose, but before he could say anything Zephyr continued.

"Shade's powers on the other hand fall under a pretty specific category." She hesitated, reaching up and playing with a strand of hair.

"What are his powers?" asked Superman when she didn't continue for a minute. She looked back up at them, still playing. "Well…you see…Shade's a Lightbane." She finally blurted out. Saturn Girl's eyes widened and Bouncing Boy looked shocked. All the Legionnaires wore expression ranging from shocked to even a little horrified save Superman, who still looked confused.

"Um, what's a Lightbane?" Everyone stared at him as though he had started speaking gibberish. Zephyr recovered first.

"First, listen to the name. _Lightbane_. Bane of Light. Basically, it's anyone-anything-that has powers related to darkness and can defeat even the light. Lightbanes are almost always at the root of horror stories, vampires, werewolves, zombies, and the things that go bump in the night. Why do you think so many fear the darkness? Because they are scared of what it could hold." Zephyr took a deep breath and continued.

"Shade's abilities differ from the norm of Ligthbanes. Yes there are some transforming aspects, but they are specifically emotional based, not on something from his surroundings. Shade mostly specializes in controlling shadow and darkness, forming it and bending it to his will. Although not everything is that complacent. His shadow is...not alive exactly but…has a conscious of sorts. It's not independent and it isn't an artificial intelligence, but it does have some funny personality quirks." She tried to smile, but it turned into more of a grimace. "One last thing about Shade, major touch phobic. He _hates _being touched. Main reason being that if someone touches him it's a double empathetic link…" She realized she hadn't mentioned that. "I don't know how it works, but when Shade touches someone he sees everything about their emotions and quite a bit of their thoughts, and the same happens to the person touching him."

"I know most of you guys have heard a lot of horror stories about Lightbanes, but my brother isn't like that. He's sweet and kind, and he's never hurt anyone without a reason or a motive, I can promise you that."

A quiet beeping echoed through the ship. Superman was reminded of the beeping of the chamber Brainy had built himself for the alignment when he was still fully Coluan. The start of something that could have serious consequences. He shivered, hoping that this little adventure wouldn't require as much drastic action as that one had.

"We're coming out of hyperdrive near the planet. We'll be docking the cruiser at the space station and taking the mini-cruisers dwn to the planet surface." Brainy quickly typed commands into Computo, looking up at the viewscreens as they came back into regular space.

Right in their line of sight was a planet the looked remarkably similar to earth. It was blue and green and brown, with a distinctive pattern of lights emerging from the dark side of the planet. Higher on the horizon, a metallic space station floated above.

This was Kaligary.

Zephyr's home.

**Yeah, they got there. The first part of the next chapter I don't think is that good, but bear with me please, I'll do the best I can.**

**Another thanks to Lady Protecta (a.k.a. LadyGuardianofKeondes) for commentings, I write better when I get reviews!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Yeah, here's chapter 6. First part isn't that good to me, but I like to think that the second part is pretty awesome. And we get to meet Shade and Artemis. They're both...interesting. You'll see why ;)**

"Wow." Was all Cham could say as they flew through the town that Zephyr had grown up in. Zephyr blinked and came out of her reverie.

"Wow what?" Cham grinned at her. "It's so green here. It reminds me a little of Durla. But all the trees are weird." Zephyr shot him a grin of her own. "Weird to you, but familiar to me. The whole planet is a wildlife conservation park. It's home to hundreds of endangered species and has managed to take just as many of the list." The city of New Shanghai was very beautiful, and not nearly as huge as New Metropolis or even Cham's own home on Durla. Shimmering spires twisted up from office buildings and institutes. The whole city was surrounded by mountains and forest, giving a spectacular horizon. Zephyr flew straight, pretty confident as to where they were going.

"Zephyr, are you sure about this?" Superman asked. Zephyr nodded. "If everything is normal, they'll be playing G-Ball at the arena. I don't want to have to worry about someone overhearing a transmission and knowing that we're coming." Zephyr guided the way over the streets with a clear certainty. As they flew Lightning Lad noticed that there were several people there that were very…unusual. Like the boy who was extending his arms and legs at every turns to go around the turn faster. Or the girl with scales.

"There's a research institute here that researches the causes of superpowered and mutations and how it manifests in different people." Lightning Lad still didn't know how Zephyr was able to read people's minds without being a telepath. No matter how she did it, it was annoying.

"Looks to me like you missed out on your calling to be a tour guide." Called Bouncing Boy jokingly. Zephyr sent a half smile at him, then turned toward the large round arena. They had arrived.

G-Ball was a recently invented sport in comparison to others, only 40 years old or so. Players wore special boots in a zero gravity cube to propel themselves and get the ball to the goal using hands, feet, head, and any other part of the body. Travels were not allowed, and neither was physical offensive. Players could have one goalie on either net and did have out of bound areas. Basically, someone had taken the ancients sports of soccer and basketball, combined them, and taken them to the next level.

Zephyr led the team into the arena, where even Brainy was somewhat impressed by the construction. Cube 9 was the only one in use, automatically pointing them in that direction. As they got closer they saw that the score was almost tied up and one team had the advantage. The other team was swiftly moving the ball forward. One boy tossed the ball to an Asian-black haired boy, who slammed past the defenders toward the goal. The goalie was wearing sunglasses and also had black hair.

It was fairly obvious who Zephyr's siblings were.

The boy with the ball threw the ball as hard as he could toward the goal…and the goalie caught it. The time buzzer sounded as the goalies team cheered. They all floated out of the cube to take their boots off.

The goalie with the glasses was the first to notice the Legion.

"Guys, I think we have guests." He said quite clearly. Everyone turned to look at them. Zephyr suddenly felt shy about seeing her brothers. The younger one-Shade-just stared for a minute before walking over. Zephyr looked up at him. They stood in front of each other for a second, studying each other.

Shade finally grinned. "Welcome back Zeph." With that Zephyr smiled and punched him in the shoulder. "Still a cheesy idiot I see." With that the ice was broken and the other kids started coming over to say hi. Artemis was over first and quickly embraced his younger sister.

"Good to see you again. Well, not exactly see, but you get the picture." Was all he had to say. Zephyr chuckled a little. Other kids greeted her and hugged her, or shook her hand, or gave her a pat on the back. As the other players headed to the locker room, Zephyr brought her brothers over to her friends.

"Guys, meet the Legion of Superheroes. Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Superman, Cham, Bouncing Boy, and Brainiac 5." Shade grinned as he shook all of the heroes hands, completely enthusiastic about meeting them. Brainy exchanged a look with Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad. This didn't correlate to normal Lightbane behavior that was recorded. Artemis stood back, inclining his head during the introductions although not really turning to face any Legionnaires. He leaned casually against his thin staff.

"So Zeph, what finally brings us back to our part of the galaxy?" Asked Shade as he finished greeting the Legionnaires. Zephyr's smile faded. "It's a little complicated. You may want to sit down."

It took about half an hour to explain the basics about what was going on. Shade looked a little surprised about the news. Artemis decidedly did not.

"Well, with how weird and different our powers are, what do you expect?" Zephyr glared at him. Shade looked back and forth between his siblings before turning to his sister. "You do know he can't see that, right?"

Zephyr gave a wry smile. "I know, but it makes me feel better." Artemis shook his head and chuckled. All the Legionnaires exchanged glances, feeling like they were missing something.

"Zephyr, is there something that we should know?" Superman finally asked. Zephyr flushed and Shade and Artemis turned to her. Artemis figured it out first. "You didn't tell them did you?" Zephyr shook her head, then said "No, I didn't. That was more your thing to tell." Artemis' mouth twisted.

"Alright then." He turned his head to the Legion members. "I'm blind." Everyone but Saturn Girl looked surprised. Of all the things that had expected, they hadn't expected that.

"But then how was it possible for you to block the ball during the game? And tell that we were there when we walked in?" Artemis turned his head in Brainy's general direction. "A few things. For one, my hearing is more acute then the average persons. When you lose one sense the others become more sensitive, although you probably already knew that. Also, I have a sort of mental projection echolocation." He held up a hand to stop questions. "Don't ask me, I don't know how it works, all I know is that I can release a series of thought waves and have a picture of my surroundings. It's just good for helping me not bump into things." He tapped his staff. "It sounds like this Organization is pretty bad news though. What was going to be your course of action?"

Lightning Lad stepped forward. "Well, now that we know you have powers, it would probably be a good idea if you stayed with the Legion and your sister. We can protect you better, and these guys have already broken out the Legion of Super Villains. Who's to say what will be next?" As though they were on a stage and there was an invisible cue, right outside the stadium there was an explosion. The Legion reacted quickly, running outside to see smoke rising from the buildings surrounding the arena. Through the smoke screen came 5 very, very familiar shapes.

The Fatal Five.

"What is the Legion doing here? Oh never mind, who cares. Boys, grab the brats." Validus lumbered forward fast as he could, but not faster then Superman, who flew straight at him and punched him, sending him flying back quite a bit. Therock fired on Brainy, who immediately pulled out a few weapons and fired back at him. Saturn Girl focused on keeping Persuader occupied, and Bouncing Boy kept Mano distracted. Apparently this was the Organizations way of retaliating for the defeat of the LSV. Lightning Lad and Zephyr flew at the Empress.

"Oh please." The Eye fired a green beam right at the teens. It slammed past them toward Shade and Artemis, then disappeared into a black shield. Shade was apparently getting good at forming shadow. He and Artemis stepped past the damage.

"Shadow, help the legion!" Yelled Shade as he ran right for Validus. A long black shape separated itself from his actual shadow and headed for Mano. Artemis ran right towards Persuader.

Saturn Girl had managed to keep him distracted with mental projections of everything of Glorgs to walls, yet somehow he kept figuring out what was real and what was false. Saturn Girl jumped back as he slammed his ax down on the spot that she had been a few moments ago. Saturn Girl landed, but faster then she could see Persuader sliced the blunt side of the ax around and knocked her off her feet, she hit the ground hard. He raised his ax and was about to bring it down on Saturn Girl when something slammed into the back of his head. He stumbled a little, allowing Saturn Girl to get away, then turned.

Standing there was Artemis, half-crouching, his staff held in an offensive stance behind him. He gave a very evil seeming grin at the much larger man. "Nice ax." Persuader roared as he brought it down toward Artemis' head, but Artemis looped his staff around his body and hooked it under the blade of the ax. With a loud clang, the ax went flying and buried itself in the ground a few yards away. Not missing a beat, he continued the motion so that the staff twisted around in his hands and clocked Persuader squarely in the head. He dropped.

Bouncing Boy bounced off a building wall into Mano's back again, knocking him down again. Mano jumped up as Bouncing Boy hit the buildings a few stories up, getting ready to come back down and slam into the villain. Mano's hand started glowing as he reached out, read to deflate Bouncing Boy. Just then a black shape sprang up from the ground and covered his eyes. Mano reached both hands up and began to scratch at Shadow, trying to get it off, until Bouncing Boy came back down and slammed into Mano hard enough to ensure that he wouldn't wake up for a few hours. Shadow sprang up as a pool of darkness, reforming into a shape of Shade's shadow.

"Thanks. I owe you one." Said Bouncing Boy. The shadow nodded gravely.

Superman punched Validus back repeatedly. The giant roared and slammed Superman into the ground, pinning him down. He began to blast Superman with a beam from his head. Suddenly Superman felt a great weight lift off him-literally. Validus was floating in the air, suspended by dozens of thick, black cables. Superman looked back to see Shade focusing darkness into cables, holding back Validus. Superman wasted no time at all and slammed into Validus again, knocking him onto his back.

Brainy kept flying around Therock, dodging energy blasts that Therock was firing none stop.

"Oh please, do you really think you can stop me as a pathetic human?" He fired another blast. Brainy let it fly past him. "Not really." He said calmly in reply. He threw a small orb toward Therock that exploded into a weighted net. It tangled around Therock and sent an electrical shock through him, knocking him out. "I expect to beat you the same way I always have."

Zephyr and Lightning Lad swooped and turned around the Empress, dodging the eye. She kept flying out of range and out of the way of your attacks.

"Oh please, is that really the best you've got?" With a smirk, another beam came from the eye, grazing Zephyr's arm. She hissed in annoyance.

"You may want to surrender, Empress. In case you haven't noticed, you're out numbered." Lightning Lad pointed out as the other Legionnaires and Zephyr's brothers coming up around them. The Empress' smug expression didn't change.

"Trust me, this isn't over." With that there was a bright flash of light and the Fatal Five were gone.

"Well, that was interesting." Commented Shade. He looked around. "I'm going with teleported the heck out of here." Superman grimaced.

"They always do that when they've lost."

Zephyr rubbed her arm where she had been burned.

"Here." Artemis set his hand over her arm for a few moments. When he pulled it back, her arm looked totally normal. "Thanks Art." She looked at her brothers, then back at the Legion. "We'll meet you in the spaceport. We should probably get some of my brothers things if they're coming with us." The two groups parted ways.

"Ok, something's been bothering me for awhile, what about her parents?" Cham finally asked as he walked around the bench again. Lightning Lad looked at him. "Who's parents?" Cham threw his arms out. "Zephyr! She didn't mention anything about them, and it doesn't sound like they're coming, so where does that leave them?" Saturn Girl shrugged. "Cham, it's probably none of our business about her family. If they want to tell us, they can tell us, when they're ready." The younger boy rolled his eyes. "Thank you Ms. Mind-Reader." He muttered to himself.

If Saturn Girl heard him, she ignored him.

Brainy sat back, working on his project from the data pad in his hands. Next to him, Superman and Bouncing Boy were discussing movies from each of their times.

"Are we late?" They all looked up to see Zephyr, Shade, and Artemis, the boys with a small duffel bag. Superman smiled. "I'd say you've got good timing." Brainy opened up the hatch of the ship and they all came aboard.

Brainy looked up at the viewscreens as he dialed in the hyperdrive back to Earth. Reaching out to type into Computo, he hesitated for a moment before he remembered. His digits didn't extend anymore. He sighed to himself and reached forward.

Even after a month of being human, he still managed to forget it and would start trying to do something that he couldn't anymore. It was like reaching out to grab a tool and then finding that the tool wasn't there. He was still trying to get used to it, but it was so…different being organic as opposed to robotic.

Saturn Girl glanced over at him, knowing what he was thinking. She didn't like it when her friends were down on themselves, but she didn't want to intrude on something personal.

Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Superman stood to go see where Zephyr was. She had told them she was planning on coming back to the bridge after she had shown her brothers where they were staying. It had been nearly 20 minutes.

They drifted into the lounge of the cruiser where they had just watched Vampire Mummies 3 a few days ago.

"Computo, lights." Superman didn't have any real desire to bump into any of the furniture or break something. To the teens surprise, Artemis was sitting in one of the chairs, his finger against a data pad.

"Why are you just sitting here in the dark?" Artemis turned his head up from staring straight out toward the group. "Superman, do you really think being in the dark makes a difference to me?" Superman winced. "Sorry, I forgot." Artemis shrugged. "It's fine. It's happened before, it'll probably happen again. And to answer your question, I was reading." He held up the pad, revealing that it was in Braille.

"Oh." Artemis continued running his finger along the pad.

"Artemis, do you know where Zephyr is?" The said boy turned his head toward Saturn Girl. _Geez, how long has it taken him to think about turning his head the same way someone with sight would?_

"She's with Shade. I think he wanted to talk with her about something." As if on cue, Shade and Zephyr walked in, talking fiercely in Japanese. Suddenly realizing that they had an audience, they both stopped talking. Artemis laughed.

"What were you two yelling about?" Shade said something in Japanese and Zephyr punched his shoulder. Artemis frowned, then spoke.

"We'll talk about it later. In case you two haven't noticed, we have company." Zephyr turned to the Legionnaires with a faint smile. "Sorry. Japanese is our first language. It's a habit." Lightning Lad scratched his head. "What were you guys arguing about anyway?" Shade frowned and stared pointedly at his sister. "Later." Lightning Lad gave a slight look at Shade. He was definitely acting differently then he had on Kaligary.

Suddenly the ship rocked. Everyone lurched slightly, then regained their balance. "What was that?" Asked Artemis. Lightning Lad exchanged a look with Saturn Girl. "Let's find out." The legionnaires flew back to the bridge, Shade and Artemis following on foot.

In the bridge, the consoles were sparking, and two of the viewscreens were broken. Brainy was quickly typing commands in Computo, reversing the damage, and Bouncing Boy was trying to get the consoles under control.

"What's going on?" asked Superman quickly as the ship rocked again.

"We've got some attackers. A fleet of Dominator ships!" Bouncing Boy looked up at the viewscreen to see the creatures flooding out of the ships, led by a certain five people.

"The Fatal Five are with them!" Shade stared out past Bouncy at the viewscreen. "So the Dominion and the Fatal Five are working together, huh?" Brainy nodded. "That's what it looks like." Superman quickly gestured. "Bouncing Boy, you're the best pilot we've got, try and get through the fleet. Everyone else, we've got to get through this block. Head for weapon stations." He turned to head out when one of the screens came on. There was a silhouette of a man standing there, his face in shadow.

"Hello Legion." Zephyr went pale. It was the same man who had piggybacked the Starwing with the data chip. "As you have probably noticed, I have made extensive alliances. The Fata Five in particular seem eager to fight you." Lightning Lad tapped his fingers, waiting for him to get to the point.

"You are probably wondering why I am giving you this call. Quite simply, I do not have to have a quarrel with you at this time. All I want are the three siblings currently on your ship. Zephyr, Shade, and Artemis, unless I am mistaken." Shade growled ever so faintly. Artemis set a hand on his shoulder as though he was restraining his brother from attacking the screen.

"So here are your options. You can either hand over the three of them and leave fighting the Alliance for another day, or you can allow them to stay with you and we will capture them and you. There are some partners in my alliance that would be quite happy to see all of you. Your choice."

Zephyr's face hardened, but she, Shade, and Artemis stayed silent. They didn't really have a say in this. At least they knew the name of these people now. Superman looked at his comrades and friends. He could naturally assume what the determination on everyone's face ment.

"Sorry, but I don't think we'll be giving into any of your demands." Although his face was in shadow, the man's posture may have stiffened.

"Very well. You have chosen your fate." The message blinked off. The Dominators and Fatal Five started coming forward quickly.

"Everyone, hold on tight, this is gonna be a bumpy ride!" Bouncing Boy slammed the handle forward, and the cruiser blasted through the first rank of Dominators. The cannons and blasters all extended, ready for battle. Bouncing Boy pulled the ship almost vertical to avoid hitting a Dominator freighter. Sudden beeping echoed through the ship.

"We've got hull breaches, lots of them. They gotten into the ship!" Superman unclipped himself, followed by Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Cham, and Brainy.

"Bouncing Boy, keep driving. Zephyr, Artemis, Shade, help with the weapons systems. Everyone else, let's get rid of these hitchhikers." Superman led the way, followed by the other three. Shade an Artemis took one station, Zephyr another. Shade quickly talked to Artemis in Japanese, directing him where to hit controls. Others may have been hesitant in trusting a blind teen, but not Shade.

"Zephyr, on our port side!" Zephyr adjusted the laser cannons and fired at the oncoming dominator ships. Bouncing Boy looked forward to see that they were headed right for a cannon. "Hold on!" He twisted the ship to the side, spiraling the cruiser out of the way, the cannon firing just a split second later. They were almost out of the dominator ranks and home free. Hopefully.

Superman punched another Dominator back and turned to hit another row with his heat vision. Saturn Girl slammed several back with a mind blast-apparently this group wasn't psychically shielded. Lightning Lad blasted one that was coming up from behind her. Around the corner, there were several smashes and shouts as Brainy and Cham fought more Dominators. Suddenly the whole ship shook.

"What was that?" Asked Lightning Lad.

Brainy came from around the corner, holding a small blaster in his hand. "I would guess the Fatal Five arrived."

The five Legionnaires flew full speed to the hatch. As they came through, they saw Validus, Persuader, and Mano fighting away at the ships metal covering. Lightning Lad automatically fired from his cannon, one very good shot knocking Mano clear off the ship.

"Wow, you guys are in a hurry. Maybe we can help you." Cham then turned into the T-rex like creature and slammed into Therock, knocking him off too. Superman punched Validus off as well. Suddenly a voice came through the flight rings.

"Guys! Bouncy is going into hyperdrive in one minute, get back to the bridge!" Zephyr clicked off, and Empress and Persuader disappeared in a flash of light, along with the other three members of the double F. Not wasting anytime, the Legion flew back into the hatch and sealed it, running back to the hatch and sitting down just as Bouncing Boy flipped the switch. The stars outside the window blurred as they picked up speed.

"They still be able to track us in hyperspace. We'll have to move faster then them." Lightning Lad said quickly. Shade sat back in his seat. "Give me one minute." He closed his eyes. Shadow-the substance, not his shadow-flowed around his hands and head. A few moments later, he opened his eyes and smiled slightly. "Ok, they've been diverted. Trust me, they won't be tracking us soon." Everyone looked at the Lightbane slightly fearfully, save Artemis, who still looked slightly at Shade with a worried expression. Brainy turned and began to type.

"If nothing else, we have a name to work with now. The Alliance. If we're going to be on the cruiser for a few days, we'd better do as much research as we can about them. Hopefully we'll find something that will help us."

A man stood facing a window in a very strange looking space station. In the room he stood in a table sat, containing the leaders of some very familiar-and unsavory-groups. Right now, most were watching in interest as their leader chewed out the Fatal Five.

"Not only did you fail to capture the children, you failed to place the tracker aboard their ship and you were incompetent enough to allow half of the Dominator fleet to be destroyed." The Empress tried to stay confident, but if there was one person in the room she did fear, it was this man.

"With all due respect, we were against superior numbers and firepower. If you want, Therock in the other room can tell you what would have been the chances of winning a fight in those circumstances."

The man slowly turned. The Empress winced, waiting for a reprimand.

"I don't want to hear excuses or statistics, I want to hear results." He took a deep breath as though drawing deep for a shred of patience. "Don't be expecting another chance anytime soon." He said simply. The Empress gave a silent sigh of relief. She had seen what this man was capable of. She knew she had gotten lucky.

The man turned to a very different sort of person. "I suppose you'll have your chance now. I do know that you want revenge against the Legion-well, one legionnaire in particular I suppose-but you must remember to keep the three _alive_. Do what you choose with the others."

Eyes lit up from the one being talked to. "I can assure you, I will not fail at this, so long as you uphold your end of the bargain." The voice echoed through the room, mostly monotone and metallic, and almost_...reptilian._

The man smiled grimly. "It will be met."

**Yeah, I left a bit of mysteriousness. It will be resolved in the next chapter. Or the next 2 chapters.**

**No, Kaligary isn't in any form of LoSH. It is a product of my crazy, all over the place imagenation.**

**Special thanks to all of you authors who have been reviewing this story, I really appreciate that feedback, and I really, really would appreciate comments and reviews. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey Everyone! Sorry I haven't updated lately, I wanted to get a couple chapters ahead and I've been having to go to the evil institution called School...blah...anyway, you probably want to read the next chapter now, and again, I am not the lucky sap who owns LoSH.**

Cham walked into the main room area, where most of the Legionnaires currently were. He headed over to Zephyr, who seemed focused on drawing something in her sketchpad-again.

"What're you drawing?" She looked up at him. "It will eventually be Superman over there, but it's still in the preliminary stages." Artemis looked over at her. Or turned in her general direction to say the least, his finger still against the data pad.

"Don't you ever get tired of drawing? You've been working on pictures for the last hour at least." Zephyr rolled her eyes toward her brother. "Do you ever get tired of reading?" Artemis smiled. "Point taken." Zephyr craned her neck at him. "What are you reading anyway? Another scary story?"

Artemis smiled to himself. "Technically the genre is horror murder mystery." Zephyr blew her hair out of her face. "Isn't Shade supposed to be the one who likes that stuff?"

"I resent that!" He called from the other room. Cham chuckled to himself as he saw how these guys were acting, like a normal bunch of siblings. Lightning Lad continued focusing on his report. Brainy walked in, still going through a data pad.

"Hey Brainy. Are there any news on the Alliance?" He turned to look at Superman. "Not yet. I've been going through recent thefts, robberies, break-outs, and other criminal offenses to see if I can find any traces of them to connect them to anything. There's actually been quite a bit of minor offenses over the last few days, but nothing" suddenly he stopped talking, his eyes widening in shock. The data pad slipped out of his hand and fell onto his lap. Everyone stared at him, wondering what in the galaxy would make Brainy drop his data.

"Brainy, what is it?" Superman asked urgently. Brainy seemed to some to for a moment. "There's been a mass breakout at Takron Galtos, just a few hours ago. The Legion of Super Villains, Alexis, the Dark Circle, some Scavengers….and several others." Zephyr's jaw dropped.

Lightning Lad walked over and took the pad from the younger boy. "Says here that there was some sort of explosion in the planet's stratosphere and while guards were occupied there someone broke out dozens of convicts from every level of security." He frowned, going over the list. Brainy shook his head when Lightning Lad turned to him.

"According to the report, your brother is still in custody. He was found unconscious on his cell floor. He was only knocked out, not incapacitated in any way."

Saturn Girl walked over to Lightning Lad and set a hand on his shoulder to give him some comfort. The rest of the Legion looked shocked, and even Artemis and Shade, who had never thought about the magnitude of some of these criminals, looked horrified. Brainy took the pad back and kept reading.

"Along with several of the usual criminals, many of which we have fought and know of, there were break-outs from the high-security prisons as well." Bouncing Boy suddenly looked a little confused.

"Uh, isn't all of Takron Galtos high-security?" Brainy nodded.

"Yes, but there are a select few prisoners that are deemed so dangerous that they have been given life-long imprisonments in specific cells at their justification depending on their abilities near the planet's core. These people have been imprisoned for years and when were in normal cells had high-escape counts." He looked over the names listed. "Only 2 were broken out of these prisons. A creature listed simply as 'Dalajua' and a man named Carter Snake-Eyes." A loud cracking sound broke the almost silence of the room. The holo-projector Shade had been holding fell in pieces on the ground. All three siblings faces were dead white. Superman looked at them.

"What is it?" He asked softly. Zephyr began to shake slightly, and Shade looked ready to hit someone. Artemis took a deep breath and managed to somewhat regain his composure.

"Just the quantity of prisoners that escaped at once. But we do have to consider something." Everyone turned to stare at him. Even without being able to see, he shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

"When you think about it, several high-risk prisoners escaped. If they had done so of their will, wouldn't there already be destruction and chaos already, or at least the deaths of a few prison guards? My guess is, the Alliance broke them out, but is keeping them on a tight leash. At the very least, we don't have to worry about them attacking without there being a lot of publicity." Everyone considered this. Brainy went back to the data report.

Zephyr stood. "I'm going to get some tea." Her voice seemed to have gone flat, completely void of any emotion. Cham frowned and looked after her, because she had a mug of tea, and had left it on the table next to the chair she had been sitting in.

Zephyr walked into the simulation chamber, letting it turn onto basic combat levels. Destructor Bots appeared around her and immediately attacked her. She twisted around, knives extended, slicing through metal, leaving a metallic screech in the air.

Combat always made her feel better. Or at the very least, let her work out her anger.

_How can he have broken out? How could the Alliance have known about him?_ punch, kick, roundhouse kick, another punch. She could have slammed them back with wind, but this was easier for working through her emotions.

_They probably didn't, they probably just knew his history._ _You look up that name and so much stuff would come up that it would make a horror story almost seem cheerful._ Still, it didn't do much to make her feel better.

_Next time he comes, I'll be ready._ _Next time he comes, he'll have to deal with me._

She slammed another robot in the chest, knocking back against the floor as the simulation ended.

"I've been trying to get in touch with Legion HQ, but we're still out of range. We should get there in a few hours, then we can come up with a plan." Lightning Lad said quickly to Saturn Girl. She nodded in reply. "Let's hope we'll be ready." He looked over at her. They were standing in the bridge, going over navigation and keeping an eye for anything to come up. Saturn Girl turned to face him. "Something's still bothering you." He nodded. "We've never even heard of these two high-security guys that broke out. Heck, most of us didn't even know that Takron Galtos had a higher form of security. If we thought the Fatal Five and the Legion of Super Villains was bad, who knows what these guys will be like?" Saturn Girl set a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll have to plan the best we can and do everything we have to make sure that they don't hurt more people. We'll find a way. That's why we formed the Legion, remember? To stop people from hurting others and to help in any way we could. We fought a Sun-Eater, we fought Imperiex, we can fight these people as well." Lightning Lad met her gaze and smiled. "Thanks Saturn Girl."

She smiled back at him. Then Lightning Lad chuckled. "I'm just happy that when we formed the Legion it didn't end up with the name 'Awesome Kids Unite' or whatever that idea was." Saturn Girl chuckled. "And you think you were more creative? I still remember the name that you introduced yourself as when we first met."

She had to laugh at his expression.

"We're coming in now." Brainy edged the ship off hyperdrive as Earth came into view. "Nicely done on those upgrades Bouncing Boy."

"Not a problem."

Shade looked over New Metropolis in wonder as it came into view, quietly whispering in Japanese to Artemis. Cham assumed he was telling his brother what it looked like.

"Hey Cham?" He turned to see Zephyr, who was speaking so quietly that it was hard to hear her. "Has the Legion ever gone against something like this?"

Cham thought about it for a minute. "I'd say Imperiex and the Sun-Eater are pretty close to this. It could be worse though." She stared at him with a silent question. He grinned. "We do get the enjoyment of Lightning Lad going through Legion auditions in a few weeks. Trust me, it's absolutely hilarious!" Zephyr stared at him, startled, then smiled and even laughed a little.

Phantom Girl was going through the data on Computo about all the possible locations that the Alliance was at based on any recent criminal activity that might have a connection.

"No luck from the outpost. Cosmic Boy, Colossal Boy, and Sun Boy don't have anything that could be a connection." White walked over from her station on the other side of Computo, biting her lower lip with worry. Timber Wolf turned to both girls.

"I haven't been able to get anything from Science police reports either. Whoever these guys are, they're good."

Dream Girl walked in. Phantom Girl looked at her. "Please say you have good news?" Dream Girl shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I didn't see anything that was related to the Alliance." Dream Girl sat down glumly. White, Orange, and Purple melded back into Triplicate Girl and rubbed her eyes.

"Ugh, my eyes are getting sore from going through all those files." Timber Wolf nodded in agreement. Phantom Girl heard the alert saying that a Legionnaire was calling from patrol in the city. "What is it Star Boy?"

As she took the call, the other Legionnaires, along with Artemis and Shade, walked into the room. Timber Wolf grinned at them, even with the darker circumstances.

"Hey guys. Any trouble getting back?" Superman shook his head. "We were attacked by the Fatal Five and a Dominator fleet when we were leaving Kaligary, but we were able to get out of it." Phantom Girl got off the com.

"Good to see you're back, we've got trouble. Star Boy and Shrinking Violet are under attack at a tech warehouse and the Brande Industries Buildings are under attack! We've got to move fast!" All of the Legionnaires flew out into action, mostly thinking the same thing.

Alliance.

**Cliffhanger! Well sort of. I don't know if this would qualify...review please! I write faster and better with them!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Figured I might as well post 2 chapters this time. Anyway, thanks to anyone who's commenting, I appreciate that. Also, I think I suck at writing fight sequences, so please be nice about this chapter!**

Superman led the way as some of the Legionnaires flew toward the Tech warehouse. Zephyr, Timber Wolf, Phantom Girl, Triplicate Girl, Bouncing Boy, and Dream Girl were all going to the Brande Industries complex, and the rest of them were going to help Star Boy and Violet. Cham had stayed at headquarters with Artemis and Shade to make sure nothing else happened. After the incident with Drax, they always made sure to have a Legionnaire in the tower.

They arrived just on time. Even with Violet causing the thieves suits to malfunction and Star Boy weighing them down, they could have quite probably been overrun by sheer numbers. Until Lightning Lad's cannon arm extended and lightning exploded in front of them. Saturn Girl's eyes lit up.

"It's the Serpents, they want whatever is in that warehouse!" They all landed around Vi and Star Boy, who were both visibly relieved.

"Good thing you made it. We were wondering when someone would get here!" Star Boy attempted to joke, as he retook a battle stance. Violet smiled. Just then the Serpents began to recover from their shock at Lightning Lad's attack and began to fire their own weapons. The whole Legion swept into action. Superman flew forward and punched one back into three of his comrades before sweeping his heat vision into the ground in front of them. Lightning Lad fired streaks of lightning at various bad guys, knocking them back. They didn't stay down for long. Whatever their suits were made of, it let them recover quickly. Brainy pulled out a blaster as well as activated the small shield he wore on his wrist now. A few good shots from him were able to clear off the top steps. Violet went back to ripping apart circuitry and Star Boy made the blasters of the enemy either very light or very heavy, enabling them useless. Saturn Girl projected mental blasts into the gang members heads.

"We can't keep fighting like this!" One of the gang members in the front yelled as he got punched back again. Another one began to yell at him. "We keep going until we get the signal. Keep attacking!"

Vi jumped out of another suit and exchanged a look with Brainy. What signal were they waiting for?

Bouncing Boy jumped back into his human shape as the group arrived at Brande Industries. Everything looked normal. No smoke, no explosions, no alarms going off, and there weren't even any people there because it was the weekend.

"Phantom Girl, are you sure that the alert was to come here?" Zephyr asked. Phantom Girl pursed her lips. "I know I got that report to get here. Did they already leave?" Suddenly an explosion blew out the wall of the building behind them, out into the complex.

"I don't think that's normal." Timber Wolf said, a tad unnecessarily. They all flew toward the wreckage. Through the smoke came a single figure, a man.

He was very tall, over six feet at least. He was bald, and what could be seen of his arms and neck revealed a tattoo like scales, all overlapping. He wore a plain black suit, mercenary class, and a smug expression on his face. The truly strange thing about him was the eyes.

They were slitted like a snake's.

Zephyr went pale for a moment, then regained her composure. If he didn't recognize her, she had nothing to worry about.

"So this is the legion of superheroes? Finally, opponents worth my time." His voice sounded high pitched and raspy, like he had spent it all screaming. Even Timber Wolf shuddered slightly at the sound of it, like nails against metal. Phantom Girl responded.

"Please, do you really think you can take all of us on? You're outnumbered, that's the truth." Zephyr desperately tried to send Phantom Girl a message with her eyes not to provoke Carter Snake-Eyes like that. His smile grew, revealing teeth that were every so slightly pointed.

"Am I really?" With that he struck forward, grabbing Dream Girl's wrist and yanking her around. He spun her once, then let her go, letting her slam into the wall. She fell to the ground, unconscious, one arm at a strange angle.

Triplicate Girl split into three and ran forward, Bouncing Boy bouncing next to her. Out of one of the side compartments of the suit, he pulled out a thin laser card. He twisted back as the laser grew in size, then sweeped back around, slamming it into Bouncing Boy and sending him flying. White, Purple, and Orange surrounded him with Timber Wolf, and Phantom Girl phased out of the ground behind him, flying straight up and coming back down, ready to slam into his back and knock him into the ground.

He stepped back a little and let Phantom Girl come down, grabbing one of her ankles faster then she could think to phase and spinning her in a similar way he spun Dream Girl before letting her go and slamming her into White. They both fell back against another wall. Orange and Purple lunged at the same time, aiming for his torso, but he twisted and stepped away, letting them both fall past him. He pulled out a small blaster and fired at both of their backs, leaving small burn marks as they sank to the ground. He smirked.

"Outnumbered am I?" Just then the blaster was slammed out of his hand as a clawed hand came forward and slashed his chest, knocking him back several feet, and yet he still stayed standing. Timber Wolf had gone into monster-wolf mode.

He jumped forward, howling, claws outstretched, swinging his arms and moving so that Carter had to keep stepping out of reach and jumping back to stay out of range from the claws.

"Oh, good try! Almost that time, so close!" His comments, coupled with his smirk, just made Timber Wolf attack faster and more fiercely. He waited for the wolf-boy to get to him, then pulled a small disk out of his pocket and with one fluid movement stuck it to his chest. Electricity crackled out of it. Timber Wofl howled in pain as he reverted back to human form, falling to the ground. Carter just kept smirking until he felt something hit the back of his head. Hard enough to make him stumble. He regained his balance quickly and turned.

Zephyr stood there, hands in a defensive position, waiting for another chance to strike. Carter came at her, smirk wiped off his face, and started delivering a low punch to the stomach. Zephyr blocked him and grabbed his hand, twisting his arm behind him as she jumped.

"You're good little girl. Very good." Then one of his hands twisted back and grabbed her shoulder, hard enough to make her cry out and let go of his arm. He turned and grabbed her other arm, squeezing both tightly. He stared into her eyes, the reptilian pupils appearing to writhe as he began to hypnotize her, paralyzing her with fear.

A black pool sprang up from the ground, covering his head and cutting off his breathing. He let go of the girl, clawing at his face to get the gunk off. Zephyr looked around to see her brother landing lightly beside her.

"What are you doing here?!" Shade pushed his hair out of his eyes. "Nice to see you too sis. Don't worry, Artemis is still at headquarters." He took up a defensive posture. Zephyr rolled her eyes and stood with him. Carter succeeded in getting a grip on Shadow and ripping him off, his eyes widening in astonishment at the sight of the twins, then turning back into his characteristic smirk.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't little Zephyr and Shade. You two have grown from the last time I saw you both. Look a lot like your dad now, don't you?" A growl escaped Shade's throat, and Zephyr's face was set with determination. Orange, coming to, exchanged a look with Dream Girl, who was clutching her arm to her chest. How did this man know Zephyr and Shade?

"Why don't you just shut up now?" Snapped Zephyr. Shade's growling grew louder. His eyes began to flash between gray and red, and his skin darkened ever so slightly.

"I'd like to, but if you don't mind, I have some business to take care of. I'll enjoy playing with you some other time. Until then." With that he tossed out a small explosion and disappeared, presumably teleported. Zephyr slammed into a broken piece of steel, gasping as she felt her ribs snap. Shade flew back, hitting the ground and rolling a few times before coming to a standstill.

Bouncing Boy woke up and stepped out from between two chunks of rock, heavily bruised. Phantom Girl and Purple helped Dream Girl stand with her broken arm while Orange supported White, who had a broken ankle. Timber Wolf, who seemed to be limping, and Shade, who already had a bruise and lump forming on his skull, both went over to check Zephyr, who was laying on the ground, limp and still.

"Pull back!" called the Serpents leader finally. Out of a pocket he threw a handful of flash pellets, effectively blinding the Legionnaires until the spots faded from their eyes, and the Serpents could no longer be seen.

"Um, what just happened?" Asked Lightning Lad, confused. Saturn Girl's eyes lit up, then went back to normal. "They're psychically shielded, I can't get a lock, but there's something wrong." Violet was holding her wrist to her chest-it had been broken in the fighting. Brainy examined it. "It looks like a clean break, a couple hours of treatment back at Headquarters should have it fixed quickly." Violet smiled at him. "Thanks Brainy." He smiled back at her quickly, then began to examine one of the weapons lying abandoned on the ground. "This is very illogical. Where would a gang like the Serpents get access to level 6 blasters?" Just then the Legionnaire rings lit up, and Phantom Girl's voice came through.

"Guys, we've got injured people over here, we need help getting them back to the tower."

Artemis was pacing back and forth when the legionnaires came back in. Cham turned from the monitor, where a police officer looked on, as his friends walked through the door. "Nothing else happened, and the Science Police have some info on…" He abruptly stopped when he saw Zephyr, unconscious and limp, enclosed in one of Brainy's force fields.

"Her ribs are broken. She needs to get fixed up, quick." Was all Shade said. Artemis walked them all quickly to the medical center of the tower, Star Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl stayed with Cham to hear what the Police had to say. Brainy directed the force field over to one of the beds and carefully set Zephyr down. Orange and Purple helped White get to a bed and sit down. Dream Girl and Violet sat down next to each other, both holding their broken appendages close. Timber Wolf stood and leane back against the wall. Artemis went to his sister, who had the worst injuries. His hands came over the broken ribs, hovering and shifting over them for a few moments.

"5 broken, 3 major fractures, 7 hairline fractures, no pierced organs." He muttered to himself, his brow furrowed in concentration. He set his hands over the area. Superman watched in wonder as the strange lumps and edges where Zephyr's bones had broken twisted down, refitting into normal shapes. Artemis held his concentration as bones fused together, muscle tissue reattached, and skin grew over the few raw areas. A few minutes later, his hands dropped.

"She's good. There are still a few hairline fractures, but they'll heal on their own over the next 2 or 3 days." With that he walked over to White. Bouncing Boy, Purple, and Orange had helped her sit back on the bed, the ankle propped up, turned at a strange angle.

"May I?" He asked quietly. White nodded. Artemis set a hand over the ankle. "Clean break." He said quietly to himself, then frowned in concentration again. Everyone stared this time. There was something extremely weird about watching an ankle reset itself. White shuddered as the healing finished.

"It'll feel a little achy for a few days, but it's fine now." White set both her feet on the ground and stood up. She stretched the ankle. "Thanks. Does it always feel that weird?" Artemis smiled and nodded. He went over to Vi and fixed her wrist in about one minute. She rotated it a few times as though she wasn't sure it had been really fixed. Brainy watched her out of the corner of his eye as he looked over the monitors. Artemis walked over to Dream Girl. Silently she held out her arm. Artemis took the area where it was broken and fixed it easily. Then he reached up and touched the side of her face and healed a cut she hadn't even noticed she had. She blinked and stared at him.

"Pretty girls don't need cuts on their faces." He murmured to her, just loud enough for her to hear, giving a smile that made her blush. He turned and walked over to his brother, Timber Wolf, and Bouncy. He simply set a hand on Bouncing Boy's shoulder and the bruises that had already started to develop on his arms were erased. He did the same for Timber Wolf. And his brother. After he pulled his hand back Shade looked over his brother critically.

"That does it, you sit down." He pointed to a chair. Artemis shook his head and took in a breath to answer "I don't care if you feel ok, you're shaking, and honestly your coloring doesn't look right either, so either sit down or I'll tell Shadow to make you sit down." Artemis gave a faint smile.

"Guess I can't answer to that." Dream Girl stared at him. His voice sounded much harsher, raspier, then it had jut a few minutes ago. Artemis collapsed into a chair as Shade went to get him a mug of tea. Cham, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Star Boy all walked in. Cham walked over to Zephyr's bed and stood next to her.

"How is everyone?" Asked Lightning Lad. Brainy answered.

"Artemis was able to sufficiently fix everyone. By her vital readings, Zephyr will most likely be unconscious for about another hour or so, but everyone else appears to be fine." Artemis smiled as he sat back in his chair. Shade walked back in and shoved a mug of tea and an apple into his brother's hands. Superman looked over at the older boy curiously.

"So does healing other people drain your energy or something?" Artemis shrugged. "It wears me out. Don't worry. The worst that has ever happened is that I sleep for a couple days." He took another sip. Shade rolled his eyes. "Yeah, after you fainted from healing the person." Artemis shrugged again. Seeing him now, sunglasses and all, it was easy to forget that he was blind.

Phantom Girl bit her lip, then blurted out her question. "Do you guys know that guy that attacked at all?" Artemis froze as he was about to take another sip, and Shade's smile was wiped off his face. The whole room went silent. Finally, Artemis nodded.

"We know him alright." His voice came out as a faint whisper. Shade sat down next to his brother. "Should I tell them?" Artemis turned his head in Shade's direction, then nodded gravely. Shade turned back to the Legion. "I really don't know how to explain all this, so please wait till I get to the end to say anything. If I get stopped…I don't know if I'll be able to keep going."

"You've probably noticed that we don't bring up our parents to much. This has to do with them, too."

"7 years ago, we were just your average Kaligarian family. We lived in a regular apartment, went to regular school, had regular parents….our dad was the head of police for the city, and mom was a professor at the University. Normal people with normal lives. Or at least as normal as we could get." He tried to smile, but failed miserably.

"One night, we were just all at home. Mom was writing one of her lectures, dad was just sitting back and relaxing, me and Artemis were playing a hologame, Zeph was drawing. We heard a knock at the door. I remember thinking it was weird cause we weren't expecting anyone that night. Dad got up and got the door. There was a man standing there. Really tall, and he had weird eyes." He looked up and stared at everyone in the eye. "Slits, not round."

"Dad asked him if everything was alright and what was going on. The man just reached out and punched him. Mom ran over to him. She threw a blanket over us, cause we were on the floor in the other room, and told us to stay still and quiet until the man left. We all stayed still, and we heard them talking. I couldn't hear what they were saying, then all of a sudden, there were two shots. The talking stopped."

"We heard footsteps coming toward us. Zephyr decided to get up and see what was going up. So we all took the blanket off and we saw…we saw…" Shade swallowed and stopped, not being able to continue. Artemis took up the story.

"Carter pointed the blaster at us, and told us that we were coming with him. He said someone wanted us." Superman finally had to jump in.

"How did you escape?" Artemis opened his mouth to answer, but someone beat him to it.

"I got angry." Everyone turned to look at Zephyr, who they hadn't realized had woken up. She was sitting up slightly, propped against a pillow, one arm laying over her stomach. "I didn't have a lot of control over my powers then. I remember getting so angry and hurt and feeling awful. The wind picked up. I think I knocked out Artemis and Shade on accident, and I fainted afterwards. When we woke up next, we were at the hospital with our Aunt and Uncle. They told us what we already knew, and they said that I had managed to bring down half the floor. I'm still thankful no one else got hurt from that." She took a deep breath and turned her legs off the bed, standing. Artemis began to stand to make her sit down, but Shade set a hand on his shoulder until he relaxed. "They said they had managed to apprehend Carter, who was getting life-time sentence in one of the cells at Takron Galtos. I guess he was wanted for other murders on 15 other worlds at least." Zephyr looked straight at the other Legionnaires. "Now you know what happened and how we know Carter Snake-Eyes."

Everyone looked shocked and horrified. Superman recovered quickest. "Don't worry, we'll catch him and send him right back into Takron Galtos."

A few hours later, Brainy continued working on the upgrades he was going to make to Mobile HQ's engines and weapons systems when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in." He yelled. He turned to the door as Shrinking Violet walked through.

"Hey Brainy. That order of tools you had came in." She handed him a small package. He noticed that it was the same wrist that had been broken a few hours ago. "Thanks Vi. How're you feeling?" She rotated her wrist and smiled slightly. "Good as new. Doesn't even feel like it was broken." She looked at the desk to see what he was working on. "How're the upgrades coming along?"

"Pretty good, thanks. I looked over the specs for that system you were adding to the mini cruiser. They're impressive." Violet blushed as she brushed away the compliment. Coming from Brainy, that ment a lot.

"If you wanted to keep working in here, feel free." Vi blinked. That was definitely a generous offer from Brainy.

"Thanks. I appreciate that." She looked over at another project that was on a computer screen. "What's that?" Brainy looked to see what he was staring at.

"I'm trying to put together a profile of attacks and sightings of the Alliance. It might just give us a clue about where they are." Violet shook her head. "No, the mecha-suit." Brainy turned.

"Seeing as I'm no longer Coluan, I don't exactly have any natural defenses. If I'm separated from my inventions, then I might get into a tight position. So, I've designed a mecha-suit similar to my uniform that will contain lasers, any equipment I may need on the field, and various scanners and specs. It's basically a suit that can be used as a weapon." He went back to the upgrade specs. Violet walked over to the suit schmatics.

"The calibration of this area if a little off." Brainy walked over and looked at the calculation, seeing what she was pointing out and quickly adjusting it. "Thank you Violet." She looked at him. "What?"

"I think I like this version of you better. You actually listen to when someone offers a suggestion to your specs." She giggle-snorted at his surprised, embarrassed expression.

Cham walked out to the balcony overlooking New Metropolis. Zephyr sat on the railing, one foot hanging over the edge, the other pulled up so she could set her head against it.

"Hey Cham." She didn't look up at him, but she did sound normal. Calm, cool, even a little optimistic. Cham leaned against the rail next to her.

"Hey Zeph. Are you feeling better?" Zephyr nodded. "Still a little sore, but that's normal for a healing like this." Cham stared at her. "You've broken your ribs before?"

Zephyr turned and gave him a grin. It was as though she had been able to move past the shadow in her life and was acting normal again. "I've broken at least 2 ribs 3 times, an arm or leg 7 times, there was the slipped disk, and the time I managed to fall off the playground equipment when I was 5 and give my skull a fracture. Can you say 'danger-prone?'" She laughed at Cham's expression. Then Cham broke into a big smile.

"Well, that explains a lot if you broke your head." Zephyr gave his a teasing punch in the shoulder, laughing with him.

"Guys, can everyone come to the main room?" Superman's voice came through the rings. Cham and Zephyr exchanged a confused look. What now?

They both flew through the door and down the hall until they came into the main room. Shade was dressed in a completely black uniform, with a white logo of a twisting spiral. Artemis was dressed slightly differently as well, although there was no obvious logo on his clothes.

"What's going on?" She asked as everyone else arrived in the main room. Superman smiled. "Well, you're brothers have fought with the Legion, it's about time they were sworn in." He turned back to the boys. Zephyr rose an eyebrow. "I'm guessing you guys are still going by the names you've got?"

"Yup."

Superman picked up one of the black boxes on the table, holding it out to Shade first. "Are you ready?" When Shade nodded, Superman opened the box and handed him the flight ring and communicator.

Zephyr beamed as her brothers officially joined the Legion of Superheroes.

"A job well done, Carter Snake-Eyes." Far away, in a room that looked almost like one a company might have a board meeting in, a shadowy man picked up a small data chip.

"Thanks to the information you copied out of the Brande Industries computer, we now have the information we need to begin the next phase of our plan. Or almost all of it." He turned to Snake-Eyes, his own eyes hard and cold.

"Not a problem Sir." Carter opened the door. A young man stepped through, eyes dark and cold. "My apprentice is ready for the challenge."

**Another encounter with the bad guys! And a lot more info about Zephyr's life. What will happen next? Comments please!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi peoples! Yeah, heres' chapter nine, it was more of a filler chapter and my attempt to be a little funny with the tormentation of Lightning Lad (he's fun to torment at times, so why not every one and then?)**

**Thank you to Doombunny13 and DisasterCode7 for being the most recent commenters on this story, reviews make me feel warm and fuzzy inside smile all happy for a minute**

**Ok, now I'll shut up and let you see the chapter.**

"Someone please shoot me." Moaned Lightning Lad as he banged his head on the table again. Zephyr rolled her eyes. "Does he always complain this much about auditions?" Saturn Girl smiled and nodded.

It had been a couple of weeks since the previous encounter with Carter Snake-Eyes and the Alliance. In spite of all of the searching the Legion had been doing, they had managed to find very little about the mysterious group. They had all finally resolved to just keeping an eye out for any more incidences. In the meantime, life went on. Legionnaires did patrols in space, stopped bad guys that they could find, and, of course, held Legion auditions.

Zephyr, having not been through an audition, found the whole thing strangely amusing. Lightning Lad decidedly did not.

"When does the torture end?" He asked, almost begging. Superman chuckled. "Lightning Lad, we've only been at this for an hour. We still have a lot more auditions to go through." Lightning lad groaned again and ran his fingers through his hair. Cham walked back up to the panel and handed Zephyr a smoothie.

"Thanks Cham. Yum." She sipped her drink, looking around. To her right sat Chameleon Boy, probably one of her best friends on the Legion. Superman sat to her immediate left, looking through data pads of up-and-coming-tryouters. Next to him was Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, who was trying to keep the former from ripping his hair out. Next to Saturn Girl sat Bouncing Boy, always ready to see new Legionnaires tryout, Brainy, and Violet, who were at that moment talking about some invention or another. Artemis, who had gone on patrol with Timber Wolf and Phantom Girl, would be arriving back later that day, and Shade, currently with Triplicate Girl and Star Boy, would be coming back later that week.

"Next in line!" called Superman. A short, thin little girl with a bright pink, sparkly leotard, walked into the room.

"I'm assuming that you're Levitation Lass." The small girl's head bobbed eagerly, and she hopped in place, obviously excited. Lightning Lad blew his hair out of his face in annoyance. Bouncing Boy glared at him for a moment, then turned back to the girl, all smiles.

"Let's see your powers!" Levitation Lass stopped bouncing in place and stood still. For a minute, nothing happened, then she slowly floated into the air. She hovered for a moment, then flew around a couple times, then landed again.

"Was that right?" Her tiny voice squeaked. Zephyr tried to stop herself from smiling. Was everything about this kid teeny?

"Is there anything else you can do?" The little girl's smile got bigger. "Yup!" She stared straight at Lightning Lad, who lifted out of his seat, spun around the room a few times, then landed again.

"That was good Levitation Lass, we'll get back to you. Next please!" She began giggling and was practically dancing her way out of the room with excitement.

Lightning Lad rolled his eyes at Superman. "How can you stay so cheerful during this whole thing? It's worse then trying to get along with Mekt." Bouncing Boy sighed.

"Lightning Lad, these kids are possible future legionnaires, they are extremely crucial to the Legion growing and being able to do more good through the galaxy."

"Yeah, like the kid who had the power to make soap bubbles in his hand."

A boy walked in this time, looking almost electric with excitement.

"Glow Kid, right?" The boy nodded, his shaggy bleach-blond hair bouncing. "Yeah, that's me, although it's kind of hard to see my powers in here, it'd be easier if it was dark."

"Give me one moment." Brainy made adjustment to the room from his panel. Within a few moments, the room looked like the twilight zone. Indeed, the boy started glowing soft neon-ish yellow-green. It was a little creepy to see him all lit up like that.

Brainy readjusted the lights. As soon as lighting went back to normal, the boy looked normal too.

"Thanks for auditioning, we'll get back to you. Next please!" Glow Boy left the room, looking extremely excited.

"If the future of the Legion depends on walking nightlights, then the universe is doomed."

Zephyr turned to Cham as Lightning Lad said his last comment. "I can see why you think Lightning Lad at an audition is hilarious." They both burst out laughing.

Another boy entered. He had short, golden-blond hair with darker streaks filling through them. Pale blue eyes looked up at the Legionnaires. He had a nice smile, and he didn't look like he was hyperventilating.

"Ok, you're Ice Boy, right?"

"Yeah, that's me." With that he set his hands against the ground. Pale blue, flat ice crystals began to form around his hands, then expanded and shot straight up, forming a tall, almost delicate looking ice-column.

"Try and break it." Lightning Lad, bored, decided to try to boy's challenge. He focused a blast of lightning through his fingers, hitting the column dead on.

It was barely even scratched.

Superman turned to Ice Boy. "Nice work. We'll get back to you. Next please!"

As he turned to go, the column dissolved.

Bouncing Boy walked up to the podium in front of a large crowd of possible legionnaires. "Alright, the new legionnaires are Kid Quantum II, XS, and Ice Boy." There was quite a bit of cheering and several sad faces as the three kids picked out made their way up to the stage. "Congratulations to the three of you, and everyone else, keep practicing and don't stop working for that goal!" Talking finished. Bouncing Boy left the podium to console and brighten up some of the rejected as well as talk to a certain little telekinetic girl about the fact that legion members had to be over 13 to join as opposed to 10.

Zephyr watched, applauding a little as Kid Quantum II walked past, long hair swishing behind her, XS running ahead, her ponytail bouncing from the speed. As Ice Boy passed he winked at her.

"You're Zephyr, right?" She stared at him. He seemed nice. "Yeah, that's me." He extended his hand. "I've heard about you. You helped out with that hostage situation a few weeks ago. And you helped take out those multidimensional creatures that escaped from the zoo as well." Zephyr blushed and smiled, "It was nothing." Ice Boy looked back up to see that Kid Quantum II had been sworn in, and XS was in the middle of the pledge. "I'd better get up there." He smiled before leaving her behind. Zephyr felt something cold in her palm. She looked down to see a tiny ice rose that quickly melted in the sun. She felt herself blushing.

"So, what do you think of these new guys?" Cham came up behind her grinning. Zephyr looked over them, her eye lingering on one in particular.

"I think they'll make a good addiction to the team." She smiled.

"Ok, so XS and Kid Quantum, for these first couple months you'll be posted at Mobile Headquarters in space to get a hang of what goes on in the Legion and to meet other Legionnaires. Ice Boy, you'll be staying here on Earth unless we get a call for a space mission and the Mobile Headquarters are to far away to get too. Saturn Girl and I will take you to Mobile HQ and we'll be able to give you lessons on driving the minicruisers. Zephyr, do you mind giving Ice Boy the tour?" Zephyr turned to Bouncing Boy and nodded before turning back to Ice Boy. "So, anywhere you want to start?" Ice Boy shrugged. "Bottom to the top maybe?" Zephyr gave a noncommittal jerk of her shoulders. "Sure. Hey Cham, wanna come?" Chameleon Boy sighed. "I wish, but I have to stay and go with monitor shift." He made a face at this. Zephyr grimaced. "Could be worse Cham. You could have the late shift." With that she left the main room, Ice Boy in tow.

"Anyway, that was the main room and Computo, which is our mainframe network. Brainy built and programmed him all the way through. We'll show you how to use it later. This is the simulation chamber." She opened up the door to show the enormous dome shaped ceiling and platform

"We use it for practicing attack strategies and fight time. For individual practice there's a signup sheet over there. You can program the sim to any environment, and enemies, and the duration of periods. Trust me, it sounds cool, it'll get old fast." With that they stepped back out and kept walking down the hall.

"Over there's the kitchen, and that's the mess hall. There's Brainy's lab, don't go in there without permission, Brainy is very protective about his technology. The only person that goes in there regularly is Shrinking Violet. Up those stairs are all the rooms and stuff, you should have a room assignment already. Over there's the weapons storage room, Brainy keeps all finished and obsolete weapons in there in case they ever come in use again. That's another storage room. Oh, here's the balcony." She slid open the doors, revealing an amazing view of sunset over New Metropolis.

"That's cool." He grinned and leaned against the rail, feeling the wind in his face as it blew past him. Zephyr stod next to him.

"I'm guessing Earth isn't your homeplanet." He chuckled and shook his head. "I wish. I'm from Sklar. Nice place. Just your average planet. You?

"Kaligary." Ice Boy's mouth twisted into a grin. "So you're from university planet, huh?" Zephyr shrugged. Just then they heard a ship coming in. One of the Legion spaceships was docking.

"That's be my brother, Phantom Girl, and Timber Wolf. I'm gonna go see them, want to come?" The to flew off to see Artemis, Phantom Girl, and Timber Wolf in the main room. Timber Wolf was talking to Brainy and Superman, and Phantom Girl was talking to Violet about the new Legionnaires. Zephyr landed in front of her brother.

"Hey Artemis. Anything exciting happen?" Artemis ran his fingers through his hair. "I wish. There were a couple small things, but the biggest thing we got was a false alarm. It was really annoying. How'd auditions go?" Zephyr gestured over to Ice Boy. "This is one of our new legionnaires, Ice Boy. There other 2, XS and Kid Quantum II, left for the outpost a couple hours ago. But you can still meet Ice Boy." Ice Boy stepped forward to shake Artemis' hand.

"It's nice to meet you. You're blind, and you're still a major hero. It's amazing!" Artemis put on a polite face and nodded. "It's nice to meet the newest addition to the team. I'm guessing you freeze things?"

"Pretty much. And you regenerate, right?" Artemis nodded as well, face still polite and cool. "I look forward to working with you. Joining the Legion is just amazing, isn't it?" Artemis only nodded again.

"I mean, you guys have beaten Grimbor, and the Fata Five, and even the legion of super villains. Did any of those take long?" Artemis shrugged. "The Fatal Five were quite persistent, but that was the extent of difficulty." Zephyr faced her brother with a frown. Since when was Artemis so formal with strangers? He was never formal, ever.

"Hey Ice Boy, you've got patrol with Superman tonight. He'll show you around the city and fill you in on the details." Ice Boy nodded to Zephyr once before walking behind the man of steel.

"Therock. How much progress have you made on that data Carter so kindly acquired?" The cyborg looked irritated and annoyed. Same as usual. What wasn't the same as usual was that he was in this room.

"It's about halfway finished. Give me a couple more weeks and it'll be done." The shadowed man nodded before turning to Carter. "Has your apprentice made contact?"

"Yes. He is in position and awaits the command to make his move." The man's eyes lit up with dark purpose. "Now the fun really begins."

**Another encounter with the bad guys. Also, if you want an actiony chapter, the next one will be, promise.**

**Also, if anyone knows how to seperate different areas (like in this case the Legion tower to the bad guys) could you let me know? Every time I try spacing or astericks it ends up not being saved, and I am hitting the save changes button, and it's infuriating!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hi peoples! Basically I wrote this chapter to learn a little more about a character that we don't see too much of in my previous chapters. I hope you enjoy this! **

"That is a lot of really ugly Lorthax." Shade stared out at the inhabited asteroid field. 3 Lorthax were floating out there, most of them with ships in their transparent stomachs. Superman and Lightning Lad floated on either side of him.

"So Lightning Lad, think Shade would like to watch and learn?" Shade watched as Lightning lad's face went sullen.

"Ha ha. Let's just clear these guys out so we can get back." Superman shrugged and flew away toward the farthest one. Lightning lad flew at the second, Shade at the third.

Shade stopped a few yards away from the giant space creature. Slimy tentacles with mouths at the end of them swooped toward him but Shade simply floated back. Holding out his hands, shadow pulled from the dark of space around him and formed in ties. One wrapped around the first 2 tentacles, another encasing the other 2. Drawing his hands together, the ties all gathered at one point, effectively immobilizing the Lorthax. Shade slammed the shadow forward, sending the Lorthax flying into the distance. Superman released another hogtied Lorthax after Shade's, and Lightning Lad had simply shocked the last one.

"Hey Lightning Lad, what did Superman mean by the watching and learning earlier? You seemed to handle yourself pretty well." Lightning Lad opened him mouth to answer, but then the communicators came on.

"Guys, get back to the ship, we've got a sighting on the Alliance."

* * *

Zephyr stretched her arms out as she waited for the filter to finish pouring her tea. Artemis sat back in the kitchen, reading as always, as was Cham, Ice Boy, and Triplicate Girl, finishing their breakfasts. Zephyr walked back over to them as she sipped her tea. Even if she still didn't get Artemis' strange coolness towards her new friend. As she sat down, Bouncing Boy came through the door.

"Morning everyone." A range of 'good mornings' from Trip's happy-perkyness to Artemis' mumble greeted him.

"By the way, Superman and the others won't be able to get back in tonight, they got an emergency call over the network." Zephyr sighed inwardly. She was wondering how Shade was doing. Cham looked up.

"Where are they going?" Bouncing Boy shrugged as Zephyr raised her mug to take a sip. "They said Cthaga." A loud choking sound echoed through the room as Zephyr choked. Artemis banged her back a couple times before she recovered.

"Cthaga? Are you totally certain it's Cthaga?" Bouncing Boy nodded. Zephyr said a very long line of words in Japanese, some of them making Artemis wince.

"That idiot! What is he thinking going there?!" She quickly got up and ran out of the room. Artemis turned to several confused Legionnaires. "Can she get in contact with the cruiser from here?" Bouncing Boy shook his head.

"Sorry, but no. We can send a transmission, but it'll be a couple of days at least before it gets to the ship." Artemis said something in Japanese as he played with the rim of his sunglasses. Triplicate Girl stared at him.

"What's so bad about Cthaga?" Artemis grimaced. "Let's just say that there's some not very pleasant background between them and Lightbanes."

* * *

Shade sat cross-legged on his bed in the Legion Mobile Head Quarters, or LMHQ. He could feel the intense rhythms of darkness echoing through space outside of the ship, growing fainter as they grew closer to the double star system that held the planet they were going to.

_At least while I'm there I don't have to worry about losing control_. He thought to himself. When he was on a planet where a sun rose and fell, it was easier to stay in control of his power. Space was so dark that it was sometimes hard to keep a tight lid on his less human side.

"Shade?" He heard knocking on his door. His eyes opened. "Come in." Superman stood there, poking his head in the door. "We'll be arriving soon, you might want to get ready to go."

"Thanks Superman. I'll be right there." Superman nodded and the door closed. Shade uncrossed his legs and stood up from the bed, stretching. He wasn't really in a hurry to get there, but he really didn't want to screw up this mission by telling the team a little more about Cthaga's history.

He grabbed his daggers and slid them up his sleeves as well as the smoke bombs he had been working on for his belt. At the last moment a small black case caught his attention. That little case had been with him for years. He'd only had to use it twice, and both times there was a good chance he would have died without it. He grabbed it and stuck in one of his pockets. Just in case.

* * *

"There you are Shade. We can now begin the briefing." Shade stood off to the side at one of the stations as Brainy tapped in a holographic projection of a star-system.

"Cthaga has 2 suns, both at a proximity that allows liquid water to exist. It is an ally of the United Planets, although by all definition not a part of them. A warning, almost every inhabitant on the planet is connected by a network of what could be called a specific power over light. It's a powerful weapon at times, and is channeled through several crystals as energy sources. These crystals hold enormous amounts of energy-probably 5 times as much as a young star-which would be why the Alliance would attack this planet." He typed a few more commands in, zooming in of the planet and forming a network of what looked like spider webs, the center of each glowing bright white. "Each of these vertices hold one crystal, and the paths that they follow are areas that they power. As you can see, there are very few crystals covering the planet, only about 6 in all. These crystals would, in theory, be able to power any device, ships, weapons, anything."

"Including ancient tech." Muttered Vi under her breath. "Precisely. The High Chancellor did inform us that the people are working on security measures that would keep the crystals safe, but it will be about 48 hours before this protection can go online. Therefore, it's our job to make sure the Alliance does not attack again. They were detected going between the planet's moons, but disappeared as they got past them, probably shielded. We have to expect anyone on that ship. Questions?" He waited. "No? Then get ready, we'll be entering the atmosphere in half an hour."

Shade looked up again at the great metal and crystal dome that covered the roof of the Council chamber. He had to admit, even if he had no love towards this particular group of people, they were very good architects.

"Thank you for coming, we weren't sure if you would be able to arrive on such short notice." The High Chancellor was a middle-aged man, probably newly elected, and thankfully hadn't given him more then a second glance. Shade stayed a little behind Timber Wolf, next to Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad. As long as he didn't attract attention and took care of whatever fighting he had to do out of sight, he would be fine.

* * *

"The archives are at your disposal, as are these maps and scanners that will tell you where each crystal is. The least protected crystal is here in" just then another man walked into the room, gently pushing a girl in front of him. Probably a teenager, with large hazel eyes and long, light brown hair, and she looked irritated.

"High Chancellor, I apologize for disrupting this audience, but I believe your daughter has to speak with you in private about a matter at school today."

"Michelo, I told you, it wasn't my fault! I can't help it that Draycon is a jerk-off idiotic sexist!" The girl looked very much pissed off for lack of a better term. She then seemed to take notice of the Legion.

"The Legion of Superheroes? Cool!" She suddenly looked thrilled. "I've heard all about you guys, it's"

"Galathea, I do believe we need to address this matter. Come with me please." The High Chancellor walked over to her.

"Dad! I've told you before, I go by"

"Yes, yes, I know your nickname, but Galathea is your true name and will remain so for now. If you would come with me please." Galathea followed her father out of the room, leaving the man named Michelo with the Legion.

"I apologize that you had to witness that. Galathea has always been…a little difficult for lack of better terms." Shade smiled. He had recognized that burning flame in her eyes. It was the same one he'd seen in everyone's in the Legion, a flame of stubbornness and fighting.

Superman suddenly froze. A moment later he turned. "Guys, we've got trouble." Just then the Legion was able to hear the very audible explosions. Superman flew out, leading the way. Shade went last, reluctant to follow so quickly and draw attention to his abilities.

Outside in front of one of the buildings, Carter Snake-Eyes, accompanied by Validus and Persuader, picked up a man. He held a gun to the man's chest.

"I'll ask once. Where's the crystal?" The man swallowed. "I don't know, I don't know where it is! Please, don't hurt me, I beg of you!" Carter's mouth twisted in contempt as he dropped the man. He ran as fast as he could away. Carter looked up to see the Legion coming at them.

"Well well, I do believe we've found someone who can help us." He grinned at the legionnaires, his teeth ever so slightly pointed. Shade felt his intense hatred raise up in him at this man.

"Validus, Persuader, I believe you have some business to settle with the Legion." Neither of them needed any more egging on, Validus slammed the ground that they were standing on and Persuader went straight for them. Timber Wolf grabbed the ax and held it, his own strength matching the owner's. Shade looked straight into the debris, trying to find Snake-Eyes.

"I'm not surprised to see Legionnaires here, but I am surprised that you would come. You are very brave. Or perhaps more accurately, very stupid." Shade twisted, looking in every direction, trying to find the devil man. He kept moving around somewhere near, just close enough for Shade to hear every drop of poison that came out of his mouth.

"Really, how do you expect to beat me here? If you are limited to your skills in martial arts and your knives, I'm afraid you're sorely mistaken." Finally, Shade saw him, leaning back casually against a pillar on a ledge a story up.

"I really must go now, perhaps I will see you again. But more likely not." His smirk was still in place as he flew up, Validus and Persuader in his wake. He turned long enough to hit a single detonation trigger.

The pillars holding up the landing blew apart and broke open, and the entire ceiling began to fall. The Legion began to get out of the way. Shade was about to follow when he heard something.

"Mama! Papa!" He looked down to see a little girl, her legs trapped under a slab held up only by the leveled earth. Tears were streaming down her face. "Mama!" Shade made his choice and flew down towards her. He landed beside her as more rock fell.

"Hold on kid. Shadow, lever the rock!" Shadow flowed out and slid under the rock. It slowly pressed up, just the inch Shade needed to yank the little girl out of the crack. He picked her up and held her close as he flew out towards open air. He dodged chunks of rocks as he flew for that one stretch of sun…

"OW!" A decent sized chunk of rock-not huge enough to crush him, but still large enough to do damage-hit his leg and threw him and the girl to the floor. He looked up to see the whole building coming down on them.

* * *

Superman looked back as the legion flew out. He couldn't see anyone in the wreckage as he floated up to the other legionnaires.

"Everyone alright?" Lightning Lad nodded, but Saturn Girl turned pale. "Where's Shade?" They all looked back as the rest of the rock fell. Saturn Girl's hands came up to her mouth as everyone else looked shocked. Brainy felt like he was going to be sick, and Shrinking Violet looked liked she was being racked by tears. Superman stared at the settling rubble as if unable to believe his eyes.

_Wait…_ was that a shift in the rock? A twitch of movement?

_Is that even possible? _Just then the rock exploded out with black and violet light. Shade stood in the center of it, a little girl covering her head next to him. Some of the larger rocks hung in the air for a moment before falling back to the ground. Shade's eyes were glowing, then as the rocks fell and the shadow retreated, he collapsed, falling on his knees and side. The Legionnaires flew straight down to him, but someone got there first.

The Chancellor's daughter knelt down by Shade and put her fingers on his neck, checking for a pulse before turning him onto his back. "He'll be ok, won't he?" The little girl trembled.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Said Superman reassuringly. The High Chancellor's daughter looked up at Brainy, Vi, and Lightning Lad as they approached.

"Thank you for your concern-Galathea, right?" Brainy asked. The girl shook her head. "I go by Shriekra. I really don't like my name. Seriously though, will he be ok?" Just then Shade groaned and sat up, hand pressed to his head. "Ok, that was not fun." His voice sounded weaker then usual, but ok. Shriekra stood up and held out a hand for Shade, who seemed to not see it.

"So what are your powers anyway? Are you telekinetic? Or do you make stuff blow up?" Shade stared at the girl, smiling faintly. "My powers aren't that important, really." Superman came over. "Shade, I'm really sorry, I thought everyone was clear of the zone"

"Superman, it's fine. You can't have your eyes everywhere." As Shade stated this more people came over the rocks into the blast zone, and a crowd was gathering around the heroes.

"Anna! Thank the heavens you're safe!" A women dressed as a chancellor picked up the little girl and held her close. The High Chancellor and a tall, delicate, absolutely gorgeous girl in her twenties. She looked like a model Shriekra had tried to imitate, but looked way to young to be her mom. Brainy reasoned that it must be her sister.

"Thank you already young man. You have already proven how valuable the legion is during this time." The High Chancellor praised Shade as the younger man shifted his weight. "Um, thank you sir."

"You're hurt." The woman pointed out that Shade's sleeve was ripped and a little bloody. The woman walked toward him, stretching out a hand. "Let me take a look at it." Shade flinched back away from her. "No!" Seeing that his reaction was a little extreme, he tried to smile, but it never touched the sudden alarm in his eyes. "I mean, it's fine, you don't have to go through the trouble." The women gave a small smile, like he was an ignorant kid and she did know better then him.

"Now, now, let's not go through that. Let's take a look at that arm." She reached out and grabbed his arm gently. Shade cried out and she let go.

"See? It was hurt worse...then…you…" her sentence trailed off as Shade stumbled back, holding his arm where she had touched him. Superman watched in shock as thin black designs spread from the spot, like someone had taken an ink brush and was running it along his skin painting intricate patterns. Shade gripped his arm hard as the design kept spreading across his skin, sliding up his neck and up his left cheekbone, where it solidified and became more real. Shade stared at his hands, eyes wide, before looking back up at the people.

The Legion looked shocked, and the Cthagaans looked horrified. The High Chancellor and his older daughter backed away in alarm, and people pulled their kids back away from Shade. Shriekra stared, but didn't move. Shade took in every expression, then floated up and away from the scene, still feeling pain rack his body.

* * *

"Shade!" Saturn Girl called after their fleeing teammate. The High Chancellor had gotten past his shock and was beginning to get angry, his face turning red. "You brought a Lightbane to our world?!" Superman exchanged a look with Lightning Lad. They were angry and freaking out over Shade's powers. Saturn Girl, natural diplomat in this situation, stepped forward.

"Sir, we didn't know that Shade wouldn't be welcome here, Shade never mentioned it himself, and we never found any records suggesting anything about Lightbanes." The High Chancellor pointed to one of the still standing murals. The date carved above it suggested that it was during the Great Crisis, and it depicted a monster composed of shadow crushing a city.

"Our ancestors were almost exterminated by those monsters, we will not allow a single one to return and finish the work that their precessors started!" Brainy flinched, memories of the city of Kandor flashing through his mind. Superman opened his mouth to respond, but someone got there first.

"Dad, shut up." Every turned to stare at Shriekra. She glared at her father defiantly. "That hero just saved a 4 year old kid he didn't even know at the risk that he might have gotten himself killed, and all you can think about is the fact that he has strange powers?" She glared at her family. Her older sister opened her mouth to say something, but Shriekra beat her to it.

"Kae, don't even say anything, I don't care if you're a freaking Shadowbane or not, he's hurt and he needs help, and you're judging him based on something so stupid and insignificant that he can't even control!"

"Shriek, please be sensible, you know what history files and other records have said about Lightbnanes"

"Yeah, but should we believe everything we read? You know that those files were biased!" Shrie-ra pulled out a small piece of metal that unfolded into a gravboard. She jumped up onto it, getting ready to go in the same direction as Shade. Before going, she turned back to her family and said something in another language that made her sister back up as though she had been slapped.

The Legion began to fly as well, trying to find their friend.

* * *

Shriekra flew through the woods outside of the city, in the same direction the boy had flown. She felt herself getting faster and faster, leaving her family behind as she listened.

There! Breathing of a person in pain, shallow and harsh. She hung a turn and came into a thick grove, the trees so enormous that it practically block out the sun. Presumably why the Lightbane boy had picked it.

He sat there, eyes closed, the only sign of movement was his shallow breathing. As her board began to hum to cool down, he opened his eyes, slumped back against the tree. Black substance-shadow-was wrapped around his injured leg and his arm. Shriekra came closer and knelt down beside him. It was obvious that something was very wrong.

"Is there anything I can do?" Shade stared at the girl. The same girl he had seen in the Chancellor's office. What was she doing here?

"The case." Shriek looked down. On the ground by his hand was a small black case. She picked it up and opened it. It had 4 syringes in it, each filled with a small amount of orange-ish liquid. They looked like epipens. Shade held up his hand and Shriekra reluctantly handed it to him and looked away as he let it hit his skin.

Shade hissed as he felt the liquid drain into his system, his emergency helper. Within a few moment, he felt his screaming headache fade, as well as the intense pain from his very core of his powers getting fried.

"Thank you. I don't think I caught your name." Shriekra looked back at him as he slid the epipen back into the case. "I'm Shriek. You?"

"Shade." He watched as she stared questioningly at the case. "As far as what this is, call it an emergency case. You know how some people are deathly allergic to nuts and stuff like that and they have to carry an epipen in case they go into anaphylactic shock? This is basically the same sort of thing for me, only it relates to my powers as well as my health." He stuck the case back into his pocket. Then he stared at Shriekra as though trying to figure something out.

"What?" Shade grinned as though he found something about the situation humorous. "How is it that the daughter of the High Chancellor is unbothered by being next to a monster?" Shriekra glared at him.

"First off, you aren't, and second, I've never met a Lightbane, so who am I to talk about what they're like?" She readjusted herself so that she was sitting on a rock behind her. Shade leaned back against a tree, the shadow bandages still in place.

"Have you been in the Legion for long?" Shriekra just decided to throw out a question. She had decided long ago that being quiet without a point was dumb.

"Only a couple weeks. My brother joined with me, and my sister joined a few weeks before either of us." Shriekra blinked. "So your family is into the whole hero business huh? Did your parents do that kind of thing too?"

Shade's smile slid off his face. "My dad was in the police." Shriekra heard the tense and realized she had stumbled on a really sensitive subject.

"I'm sorry, I understand." Shade rose an eyebrow. "Yeah, because you have your happy little family and your amazing little light gift that makes things so relatable." Sarcasm practically dripped from his words.

"For your information, my life isn't at all what you'd call perfect. My dad is always so busy that he never has time to even talk for more then a couple of minutes, my sister thinks she is all high and mighty cause she's so powerful, and my mom…" Shriekra played with some rocks on the ground, not meeting Shade's eyes. "Also, for your information Mr.High-and-Mighty, I don't have light powers." Shade stared at her in shock. "How…"

"My mom wasn't Cthagaan. So basically I got the luck of the draw. I can't even make ribbons of light and _babies_ can do that. My power is…different." She looked back up at the amused Lightbane. "What is so darn funny?!"

Shade shrugged and sat back. "I suppose I should apologize, my sense of humor is what most people call a little off. I'm simply amused about how independent you are. One would expect you to be less independant and more...dependant, I suppose. Yet you seem to want to distance yourself from your family in every way. Somehow I doubt you father approves of the design on your board." Shriekra looked over her board design with pride. Around a small black heart in the center, an eerie wraith reared up, screaming in fury and eyes glowing. It was really freaky and at the same time really cool.

"It's pretty cool." Shade smiled at her. Shriekra decided that he had a nice smile. Just then Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Superman flew down.

"Are you alright?" Was the first thing out of Superman's mouth. Shade grinned.

"Let's see, I just got hit by a rock, showed that I'm a Lightbane, and managed to run into this tree when I was flying out here. Could I be any better?" Shade looked amused.

"Sarcasm becomes you." Shriekra punched his shoulder lightly. Saturn Girl smiled to see them getting along so well.

"Now the question turns into how will we get you out of here?" Shade's smile faded again at Lightning Lad's question. He sat down. "I really don't know. Flying over the city to the cruiser would be a really bad idea, and flying the cruiser out here would attract to much attention." Shriekra clicked her tongue. "I've got an idea. Wait out here until the Legion is ready to leave, then rendezvous during takeoff. Less time in the public eye, and it wouldn't attract too much attention." They heroes considered it.

"It does seem like the best option at this point." Said Shade. "I'll see you guys later. Just let me know via communicator when you'll be leaving and I'll make sure to get there in time."

Saturn Girl looked hesitant, but both boys nodded. "We'll meet up later." They trio flew off, leaving Shriekra and Shade.

"Do you mind the woods? They can be a little creepy at night." The smile on Shade's face vaguely reminded her of the specter on her board. "Don't worry about me."

* * *

Saturn Girl landed beside her friends as Superman and Lightning Lad explained the situation to Timber Wolf and Brainy.

"Saturn Girl?" The older girl turned to see Shrinking Violet. "What is it?"

"Is something wrong? You're really quiet." Saturn Girl sighed. "I don't know. I have this bad feeling, but there's so much power in the air I'm having trouble with my telepathy. I can't find where any of them are, and I don't really know what will happen." Before Violet could say anything, Lightning Lad came over.

"We've got trouble."

**Buahaha!! CLIFFHANGER!! I'll try and update soon, but I can't gurantee that it will be in the next couple days, I've been swamped with work and I have a big project for my new least favorite class World History, and I might be going out of town for the weekend. So I'll do what I can and until then, Peace out!**

**Also, a little thank you to all of you stubborn and incredibly kind writers who have been reviewing my work-it means a lot to me to get those reviews.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hi peoples! Here is the next chappie in Zephyr, I hope you enjoy it, and hopefully will know a little bit more about Shade's character.**

**No, I dont' own LoSH...I wish I did though...**

"This video file just came through every screen in the whole city." Brainy held up the projector so that the other 5 Legionnaires could see what was playing.

"Attention Cthagaans." Carter's smirking face was showed in the screen. "I send this out as a warning. Bring the Crystal to the inner city courtyard by sundown, or you lose several innocent lives." The message blinked out. Brainy set the projector back in his pocket.

"Great. We've got a psychopath on the loose who wants a super powerful crystal and has the resources to carry out his threat." Muttered Lightning Lad. Vi bit her lip.

"Well we can't just hand it over. We don't know where it is ourselves." Timber Wolf stated, practical as always.

Superman blinked, then smiled faintly. "Who said we had to give him the real thing?"

Brainy stared at him for a moment. "A decoy could work, but it would be safer to assume that Snake-Eye has the necessary means to identify a true crystal from the decoy." Superman grimaced. "Right, sorry."

Saturn Girl looked puzzled. "I still don't know how he plans to go about killing innocents. By sundown this whole city could be evacuated. So that means he's probably planning to make a move now." No sooner then she had stated this smoke started rising from an explosion a few miles away. The Legion took off, not sure what to expect.

Validus and Persuader were there of course, but no sign of Carter. There was another person with them though, the body wrapped in a cloak and the face covered by a cloth mask. Superman swooped in and slammed into Validus on the spot, knocking him into the air. Lightning Lad and Timber Wolf went straight for Persuader, Lightning Lad firing his cannon and Timber Wolf in monster wolf mode. Brainy, Vi, and Saturn Girl flew toward the masked figure. Certain fine features stated that it was a girl.

She held up her hand and light exploded out of it, knocking the three Legionnaires out and slamming them into the ground. Beams of light from her hands encircled them, pinning arms to sides and legs together. Persuader knocked Lightning Lad and Timber Wolf in her direction, and she gave them the same treatment.

Superman came back down, being held by Validus, into the stonework, leaving a fairly deep, Superman-shaped indent in the ground. He pulled himself up a moment later to see the three villains, his friends at their feet, teleporting away.

* * *

Shriekra flew back towards the grove after seeing this, panicky and scared. She knew as well as anyone else that even Superman was going to need help with these bad guys.

"Shade!" She yelled his name, looking around desperately.

"You called?" Shriek looked up to see him sitting in the fork of a tree. He was smiling, still not aware of the events that had happened.

"Something happened. Most of the Legionnaires are captured save Superman, and he was taken to the Chancellery because my dad and the other wanted to talk to him. And I think my sister was taken too, I can't find her anywhere!" Shriek tried desperately to stay calm, but she felt herself shaking even more with each sentence.

"It's gonna be ok Shriek." She looked up to see him standing right in front of her. "When Carter wants to make the trade, I'll be there."

* * *

Shade flew with Shriek back to the Chancellery. He knew there was no way in the name of the galaxy they were going to be happy to see him, but they would just have to live with it. They flew into the domed chamber, the fading light apparent. He landed next to Superman.

"So Supes, what'd I miss?" He decided to put on a cocky and annoying face for the chancellors.

"How dare you come in here!" One of the younger chancellors cried. Shade turned to face her.

"To be honest ma'am, I do what I dare when I choose to, and as far as I'm concerned, I have friends in danger, not to mention innocents. Would you rather innocent lives be lost because you were too stubborn and prejudiced to let a Lightbane help?" The Chancellor pressed her lips together and sank back down into her seat.

"Alright Shade, we can't just hand over the crystal and we know he won't fall for a decoy. Our best chance is to go to him and fight to get our friends out of there. With the help of some of the policemen we should be able to free our friends and save the others who have been captured. I'll handle Carter, you're going to have to take care of Persuader, and anyone who's helping us can take care of Validus."

"Which would be me." They both turned to see the teenaged girl there, smiling innocently. "Shriek, you said yourself that you don't have abilities over light, this situation would be too dangerous for you."

"You never did ask about my chosen name. Let's just say it relates to my power." She gave Shade a very predatory grin. He swallowed a little. Why oh why did all the girls he knew have to be scary?

* * *

Superman, Shade, and Shriekra waited in the courtyard where Carter would supposedly come. Police were staked out all over the perimeter, armed with everything from stun-guns to their own powers, all hidden from sight. The sun was setting, and Shade could feel darkness stretching over the city. In all honesty, it felt good, but seeing as how some of those police probably had very twitchy trigger fingers, he knew it would be better if he used his powers as little as possible.

A flash of light appeared in the center of the courtyard. The masked figure, Carter, Validus, Persuader, and the other Legionnaires, the latter still tied up. Carter stared at the three heroes, his nostrils flaring contemptuously.

"How pathetic. To stop us from gaining this crystal, you choose a last stand. Really, I expected something more clever from you."

"I think the joke's on you. NOW!" Shriek called out, and every policeman in the vicinity fired. Lasers flashed through the air towards the criminals.

Suddenly, they stopped. Everything stopped in midair, just floating there, before being absorbed by the masked figure.

"Oh please. Is that really the best you've got?" She lifted a hand, beams of light exploding from it and grabbing the police, throwing them down. Superman wasted no time in going straight for Persuader and Validus, both moving towards the other Legionnaires. Shade headed towards them, shadow building up around him before a wall of light slammed up.

"Oh no, _Lightbane._ I'm going to deal with you personally." Shade turned to see the masked figure, hand raised to stop him.

"You can stop the charade now, Raeva." The mask came down to reveal the same beautiful face of the Chancellor's daughter, twisted by fury and hatred. "Very astute, Lightbane. But it won't make a difference. This is my world, where I am strongest, and I can beat you." Tendrils of light exploded from her hands, heading straight for Shade. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and threw up a shield, feeling the blast be diverted by his power to move around him. He looked up to be punched by her and thrown out of the light arena. He stared up dazedly.

_Shriek must have let the others out._ He thought to himself. He could see the other Legionnaires working on the other three villains. Raeva stood before him, light twisting around her hand.

"NO!" Shriek slammed into her sister. Rae twisted back and threw her off for her to land on her feet. "You always did feel bad for these scum, little sister. That's life, get over it."

In response, Shriek opened her mouth and screamed.

Shade brought his hands up to his ears as the sound shattered everything around her in sonic waves. Rae staggered back and her sister screamed, the sound piercing into her, her own cries unheard. Finally, she stopped and knelt down next to Shade.

"You're hurt." She pointed to his wrist. He stared at the strange angle, then shrugged. "I've had worse."

"Do you have a death wish or something?! In the state you're in there's no way you'll be able to beat her!" Shade looked down at his regular hand. "The state I'm in…" He looked back up at her. "Tell everyone to be careful. I'm going to try something a little unorthodox." Shriek stared at him suspiciously, then turned towards the other fights. Rae stood again, not smiling, looking absolutely furious.

Shade slowly rose to his feet. "What, think you can take me on with a broken wrist and your powers hald drained? I get my powers from those crystals, and you're just too weak." Shade ignored her and closed his eyes before letting go.

Intense anger ran through him as he changed. Black scales rose out of his skin, covering his skin. He could feel his bones shifting, becoming larger, refitting themselves into the skeleton of a monster. Spines shot out along his backbone, and his teeth grew into enormous fangs, like needles on steroids. A thick tail shot out , also spiked, and his feet reformatted to become hooves. His fingers lengthened and sharpened, like talons. Finally his eyes became slits and began to split, creating a row of eyes extending from each side of his head. When he opened them, they glowed red.

A monster form of a Lightbane.

Rae backed up, looking less confident and more scared now. Then she frowned. Out of her sleeves extended sharp daggers, like cracked metal. Immediately she lifted them and began firing.

The beams didn't even touch Shade.

He roared, not like Shriek's scream, but a deep throated cry of fury and anger. And challenge. He ran forward, talon extended, slashing all the while. Rae threw up shields, desperately trying to keep him at bay. His tail whipped around and slammed into her side, knocking her back. Another slash of his talons went through a tendon on her leg and made her fall. He reached in for the killing strike….

Then suddenly, seemed to come to. The monster shook his head and stepped back a few paces, holding onto his head. Slowly, he started changing back, dark scales into pale skin, hair growing back, tail shrinking….finally it was just Shade who stood there, swaying a little until he fell on his side, unconscious.

* * *

"Shade? Are you ok?" He groaned and slowly opened his eyes. Shriek was kneeling beside him, her fingers against his neck where his pulse was. He smiled.

"Why do I always end up on the ground and you end up on your knees?" Shriek smiled. "Oh shut up." She carefully pulled him into a sitting position. He looked up. There were marks of the battle, but the other Legionnaires stood nearby, none looking worse for the wear. "What happened?"

"You beat Rae, the Legion almost beat the other guys, they transportated away without my sister, she's in custody, and my dad wanted me to tell you that he apologizes for his earlier reaction." She leaned over by his ankle. "I think you twisted it." She walked over to that side and helped pull him up. Shade stood a little unsteadily, but was standing. Shriek helped him the other legionnaires.

"Nice work Shade." Lightning Lad patted his shoulder. Everyone looked pleased, and the Cthagaans in the distance looked abashed.

"Think they'll get past the idea that a Lightbane can be good?" Superman threw the idea in the air, making Shade grin.

"Well, unless they refuse to listen to logic, they would have to." Vi sighed and shook her head at Brainy. "You know, for a guy with 12th level intelligence, you sure have a hard time figuring when something is rhetoric." Brainy ignored her.

"By the way Shade, Computo sent me a message from the cruiser. Something from your sister I believe." Shade stared for a moment, then cracked up as the moon rose over the city.

**Yeah, I finished Shade's piece of the story, at least for now. You'll see what I mean in time ;)**

**Anyway, it might be awhile before I post again cause I'm a little stuck...**

**Thank you to everyone who's reviewing my work, it means a lot to me.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello. Well, here's chapter 12, where things start to get interesting. Or at least more so then before, We learn a little bit more about Artemis, find out something about Zephyr, and recieve a clue to a new baddie in their midst.**

**So how do you see all this? Just look down and start reading!**

**Disclamer: No peoples, I don't own LoSH. I wish I did, but I don't.**

**One more thing, a special thanks to DisasterCode7, Brainiac5, and doombunny13 for being themore current reviewers of this story. Thanks a lot guys!**

"I still can't believe you were that much of an idiot!" Zephyr said for the umpteenth time as she flew over the city. Cham, Shade, and she herself were on patrol a few hours after the other team had gotten back. Zephyr had been too happy to berate him about it over the video screen, but by the time he got back….

"Zeph, calm down, will ya? Everything turned out ok, we found out a little more about the bad guys, they didn't get the crystals, and I am unhurt. I still don't see what you are so irritated about." Shade smiled, belying his irate tone.

"Maybe cause you did something that stupid in the first place?"

Cham finally decided to stop this. "We're supposed to be on patrol, not bickering, remember?"

"Sorry. JINX!" The twins said to each other, laughing after the fact. Then Shade gave a very innocent seeming grin. Zephyr saw him.

"What?" Shade flipped on his back and continued flying threw the air, arms behind his head and he whistled a little tune. "I thought I heard something about you having a boyfriend." Zephyr's face soured a little.

"Iceboy is not my boyfriend, he's just a nice guy who is new and appreciated being shown around and having a friend in the legion." Cham frowned. Zephyr was spending a lot of time with Iceboy-were they really that close?

"Yeah, and my hair is bright pink. OUCH!" Shade slammed headfirst into a billboard siding, the only part that was solid. Zeph chuckled as he groaned and rubbed his head.

"Serves you right."

* * *

Artemis turned up the volume on the headphones again, listening to the results of the various medical scans the Legion had performed. Brainy had been kind enough to install a verbal command system into Computo's files so that they were audible. Artemis continued taking notes, memorizing various heartbeats and blood levels, trying to block out his irritation at the boy sitting on the couch a few feet away and laughing at one of Bouncing Boy's jokes.

He knew that Zephyr liked this guy, and it was nice that she was making a friend, but there was just something about Iceboy that didn't fit. Something about that boy wasn't quite right. He was just too…..perfect. Nobody was always that calm, nobody was ever that easy going, it just wasn't something that happened. And there was the evidence of what had happened last night.

_Flashback_

_Artemis walked down the hall late at night, finger pressed against a data pad. He was rereading Airborn. The text was ancient, but it was still a good story. As he passed the main room, he heard typing. He opened the door. There was Iceboy's unique breathing signature and heartbeat-the easiest way to identify someone if you couldn't see then and they hadn't said anything._

"_Hello Iceboy." He heard rustling of cloth as the other boy stood up. "Hello Artemis. I was just finishing up some research. Did you need to use the computer?"_

_Artemis blinked behind his glasses, then smiled coolly. "Actually, there were a couple things I needed to take care of. Thank you. Good night." Iceboy left the room without another word. Artemis sat down at the screen and plugged in his headphones and microphone. Technically, he hadn't had to use the computer, but what research had Iceboy wanted to do that couldn't wait until morning-or couldn't be done in front of anyone else, even a blind teenager?_

"_Computo, identify all searches done by previous occupant of this computer." He waited as the computer pulled things up for a couple minutes._

"_Searches done by previous user: patrol routes of Science police to Takron Galtos, all current residents of Takron Galtos, shipments of nanotechnology and non-metallic alloys, and Laser weapon systems of the United Planets space station."_

_Artemis sat back, pensive. What did all this data have to do with any villains? Or in particular, the Alliance?_

_End Flashback_

He heard the pneumatic doors hiss open as Cham, Zephyr, and Shade walked in.

"Had a good patrol?" Iceboy shifted over a little as Zephyr sat down next to him. "Yup." Artemis shut off the headphones and turned himself in her direction. Technically it didn't matter cause he couldn't see anyway, but it made people less susceptible to remembering what some might call his 'handicap'. Besides, it was commen politeness.

"Nothing went wrong? No alerts or anything?" To Artemis' great dissatisfaction, Zephyr was not the one who answered.

"If there was an alert, I think you'd know about it." Artemis scowled in Iceboy's general direction. "If I recall correctly, I believe I asked my sister, thank you very much." He could almost see Zephyr frown.

"Nothing happened Artemis. Shade ran in a billboard, but that's about it." Artemis sighed as his other brother left the room with a huff. The door opened again.

"Hey Lightning Lad, what's up?" Bouncing Boy asked. Artemis turned back to his desk, reaching out to turn the headphones back on.

"We got some information about an associate of Carter's who may know where he is." Artemis' head shot up. He could practically hear the twins necks crack at the speed that they turned to look at Lightning Lad. "The guy goes by Micheal Jags. Hustler, gambler, dealer, and all around mobster. He's supposedly hiding out on Cargg. We're working on determining his exact location, but we should be able to find him and detain him soon. Hopefully he'll have some evidence on the Alliance."

"Well I'm sure we'll find him. And when we do we'll get in there and trap him like a fly in glue." Artemis felt like this would be the point where he would roll his eyes if he could, even behind his glasses. "We appreciate that Iceboy, but this maybe more of a mission for members of the team who are good at infiltration and stealth, not big explosions and columns of ice. You go charging into one of those hideouts, they'll be out of there faster then you can say 'freeze'." Artemis coolly responded. He could hear Iceboy slouch back against the sofa.

"Don't worry about it Iceboy. We'd probably need some muscle in there at some point, so then we'd need your help." Artemis felt like glaring at his sister, but instead stared straight ahead, away from her and Iceboy.

"Thank Zeph. That makes me feel a lot better that I can actually go on missions."

"Iceboy, I think you might want to go through more training before we get you to come on actual missions." Artemis heard someone behind him stand up and set a hand on his shoulder.

"Artemis, can you come with me to my room? Now?" Artemis shrugged and picked up the headphones as Zephyr dragged him out the door, passing Cham and Shade in the hall.

"Where are they going?"

* * *

Zephyr was silent the whole way down the hall as she dragged her brother toward her room. Artemis stayed quiet, knowing that she'd say what she wanted to say when they got there.

Zephyr closed the door behind them as they walked into her room. "Artemis, what has been up with you lately?"

Artemis leaned back against the wall opposite of his sister, arms crossed, face emotionless. He did notice her usage of Japanese instead of English. A sign that she wanted this to be very private. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. You've been putting down our new legionnaire and you've been very cold to Iceboy overall." Zephyr did look angry now. Artemis kept staring straight ahead, his face in her general direction.

"Maybe because Iceboy is hiding something."

Zephyr laughed. "Artemis, please be sensible. Iceboy is from Earth, he has powers like any other Legionnaire, he got in with the auditions, what about him isn't honest?" Artemis just glared at his sister. Zephyr stopped smiling. Anyone who said Artemis didn't scowl cause he couldn't see was blinder then he was.

"Zeph, something isn't right about the kid. I'm serious. He's too calm all the time, and he has a weird interest in the Alliance. Doesn't that strike you as the littlest bit strange?" Zephyr frowned. "Why? What is so weird about being calm? And wouldn't anyone have an interest in the Alliance? I mean, they are one of the most serious crime groups we've seen." Artemis sat down at the foot of the bed.

"Yes, but does most of the Legion's interest come down to the point where they stay up late at night doing searches through the records of Takron Galtos prisoners still in captivity and the routes of all police transports through space, and shipments of nanotech and nonmetallic alloys, and Laser weapons systems for a public space station?" He turned his head. "I know you see him as a close friend, but I really think you should stay away from him." Zephyr's eyes narrowed.

"Is that what this is about?" It was Artemis' turn to look confused. "What is what about?"

"Is you telling me that Iceboy isn't a good person having something to do with the fact that I like him?" Artemis noticed that she had given up pretense of not crushing on him. "No, I'm telling you because I don't trust him."

"Artemis, you barely know this guy. He joined the Legion a week ago, and so far he's been useful in patrols, and he's a dedicated learner in fighting. You have no evidence of Iceboy being anything but a nice, kind, average super powered boy."

"Sis, please just listen. When I was doing the medical records for him, I checked his pulse. It was too regular, the exact kind of a person trained to control every bodily function so as not to give anything away. Normal people don't learn that, and that kind of control of the body takes years to master. And then there's his interest in Takron Galtos transports. Why would you want to know the routes they were taking? Or why would you want to know nanotech shipments? Or non-metallic alloy? Or a weapons system?" Zephyr shifted from foot to foot.

"I'll admit that the methods are a little weird, but it is true that you never know what could be useful. The routes would give an idea of how to stop Alliance from breaking out more prisoners. And the other three would be dangerous is the Alliance had access to them." Artemis sighed and dropped his head into his hands. "Will you stop defending your boyfriend and just listen for a minute?"

"No, you listen for a moment. Iceboy is one of the nicest boys I've ever met. He's sweet, and caring, and kind, and he wants to help people-why else would he be in the Legion?"

"Infiltration. Someone could be paying him a lot of money to find out classified information they wouldn't be able to get any other way." Zephyr threw her arms in the air.

"Do you always have to have a theory? Can't you just accept the Iceboy is a nice guy and live with it?"

"Zeph, this isn't about if you like him or not"

"Yes it is! You just don't like him because he actually sees me as more then just a friend!"

Artemis sighed and dropped his head into his hands again. "Sis, this has nothing to do with your crushes or anything, this has to do with"

"Just that!" Zephyr yelled, interrupting Artemis midsentence. "You've never gotten along with boys I like! Remember Damien?"

"Technically you dumped him." Artemis muttered, but she just plowed on.

"That doesn't change the fact that you never acted nice around him, or that you keep trying to run my life! I'm sick of you trying to tell who isn't decent for me to like, or scaring guys I like, or all that crap."

"Sis, I'm just trying to look out for you. I don't want you getting hurt."

"Well don't, cause no matter how much every tells you that you act like him, and look like him, and you're the oldest, you aren't dad!" Artemis jerked back as though she had slapped him. Zephyr was breathing hard, face flushed a little, and yet it started to pale, her angry expression turning horrified.

"Oh gosh….Artemis….I didn't…" Artemis held up his hand, stopping her from saying anything else. "It's fine. I get it. If that's the way you want things, that's the way they'll be." With that Artemis walked out of the room past a guilty looking Cham. Zephyr stared at him.

"I heard you guys yelling at each other, but I didn't know what you were saying. Is there anything wrong?" Zephyr looked pale and angry at herself. "It's nothing Cham." With that she closed the door.

* * *

Dream Girl walked back into the main Legion headquarters. Everything looked just as it had in her dream. She sighed silently to herself. This was one of those times where she did wish that she couldn't see the future.

"Hey Dream Girl." Saturn Girl waved her over and Dream Girl sat on the chair next to her. "Is everything alright?"

Dream Girl hesitated at the other girl's question. "You'll see in a minute."

Just then, Zephyr walked through the door, looking very angry, and sat down. Shade watched his sister carefully, causing Cham to beat him in the game they were playing. He knew that when Zephyr blew up, you didn't want to be in a 10 mile radius of her. You could even tell by the storm clouds gathering outside and the weird wind blowing around the room. Shade sighed.

"Sis." She glared at him, and he pointed outside. Upon seeing the clouds, Zephyr's expression grew sheepish.

"Sorry." The sky immediately cleared up. Shade walked over to her and sat down on her other side, away from Iceboy. "Is everything alright?" he whispered in Japanese.

She leaned over and whispered back. "It just has to do with me and Artemis Shade, it's not important." At that moment, Artemis walked back in and sat back down in his seat, facing away from his sister, and picked up his data pad and headphones again. Zephyr turned on her own data pad and everyone was quiet for a few minutes, the only sounds were Zephyr's humming and Artemis' reaching out to turn up the volume on the headphones. Dream Girl sat with a feeling of dread. Especially since she knew what was going to happen.

Artemis heard his sister humming even through the headphones. The auditory files could only be turned up so high without being uncomfortable after all. And he could still hear Zephyr humming his least favorite song. She knew that it brought back not-very-happy memories. Finally he snapped.

"Shade, would you tell our sister to please stop humming that obnoxious song?" Shade stared at his older brother. Since when had he wanted Shade as a go between? Or make Zephyr stop humming?

"Tell her yourself, she's right here." Zephyr's eyes didn't even flicker up from her drawings.

"Shade, please tell Artemis that if my humming is getting on his nerves, maybe he should go into another room." Shade now looked very confused and was more then a little worried. What in the universe was going on?

"Please tell our sister that she knows that the song she has chosen to hum is annoying and unpleasant."

"Please tell our brother that he _is_ annoying and unpleasant."

"Tell her that she's stubborn and refuses to listen."

"Tell him that he is pig-headed and won't look at reality."

With each exchange the tones went from cordial to irate until Shade finally exploded.

"TELL EACH OTHER YOURSELVES!!" With that he stood up and stomped out of the room. Shadow lingered a moment, then shook his head, as though disappointed in the siblings, before sliding across the floor and returning to Shade.

Artemis turned his head after him, as did Zephyr. Artemis stood and left the room, Zephyr going out another way towards the balcony. Dream Girl rubbed her forehead. Saturn Girl looked at her friend sadly.

"I'm guessing that's what was wrong. Did you see them arguing?" Dream Girl just nodded. "Yeah." Saturn Girl patted the other girl on the back. "There was nothing you could have done. They're siblings, and sometimes siblings have their arguments. They just need time."

Dream Girl looked at the door Artemis had left through. "I hope so Saturn Girl."

* * *

Zephyr leaned forward against the balcony railing, arms resting against it. She felt the cool wind blow past her running over her face, through her hair, brushing away all anger and horror at what she had said.

"_Well don't, cause no matter how much every tells you that you act like him, and look like him, and you're the oldest, you aren't dad!"_

Zephyr winced as hugged herself tighter as her words whipped back through her mind. She remembered Artemis' face. Full of shock, and hurt, and sadness…when it really came down to it, she had overreacted, and had gone over the limit of what was acceptable. She sighed again.

"Is everything alright?" She turned and saw Iceboy coming up behind her. She turned. "Just getting into a spat with my brother, that's all." She turned back as he came next to her.

"Sibling rivalry or what?" Zephyr smiled at that idea. "No, just some little issues and both of us saying things we didn't mean." Iceboy put and arm around her shoulders and Zephyr set her head against his shoulder.

"He's probably just being a stubborn older brother. Siblings can never stand seeing their younger family members growing up." Zephyr shrugged, not enough for Iceboy to let go. "Maybe. Either way, we'll probably get this patched up in a few days." She smiled as Iceboy set his other arm around her.

* * *

Shade leaned back on his bed, staring at the ceiling, when he heard a knock.

"Shade?" Superman walked in as Shadow opened the door before sliding back over to his counterpart. "Shade, is everything alright? That was a pretty big argument that was going on in the main room." When Shade looked up at Superman with a questioning glance. "Superhearing. By the way, your sister has nightmares."

Shade sighed. Great. Just what they needed, Zephyr not being able to sleep cause of a years old memory. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and looked up at the man of steel. Really, it was just a little annoying how bulked up and tall every single guy on the legion was, save Cham and Brainy.

"I'm just worried and confused." Shade said. Superman leaned back against the wall, casual, but questioning. "About the argument."

"Shade, it is your sister and your brother. They're probably just having normal sibling spats."

Shade shook his head. "You don't know my siblings like I do. They've never had a serious argument before, I've always been the argumentative one. Artemis has always been the peacemaker, or Zephyr has always been able to calm us down. I've never had them be angry at each other and I don't know what to do. Heck, I don't even know what they're arguing about!" He dropped his head into his hands. Superman walked over to him and set a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry. Everything will turn out fine."

* * *

Artemis was reading when the door slid open. He recognized the light _click-click_ of heeled footsteps as well as the quiet breathing.

"I'm assuming you knew what was going to happen?" Dream Girl sat down next to him. "Yeah. I didn't know how to stop it or how to tell you so….well…" Dream Girl trailed off. Artemis turned his head toward her. "Did you come in here to apologize for that?" He asked with a smile. Dream Girl blushed and nodded, then remember that he couldn't see her.

"Yes." Artemis chuckled a little. "Dream Girl, I appreciate that, really I do, but even if you had, it still would have happened. There's nothing you could have done to change that." He sighed and his smile slid off his face. "I just wish I knew what to do. Zephyr and I have never argued-not like this anyway." Unthinkingly, he pulled off his glasses and rubbed the skin around his eyes. But not before hearing Dream Girl's slight gasp. He quickly yanked the glasses back on.

"Sorry. Habit." Dream Girl stared at his face. "No, no, that's ok, I was just…." Artemis turned his head in her direction again. Really, it was a little unnerving how he was able to do that.

"Shocked?" Dream Girl quietly said yes. The image still flashed in her mind-eyes coated in a film of translucent white, not quite masking the stormy gray characteristic of his siblings, that were every so lightly speckled with amber, the skin surrounding them for a couple centimeters strangely colored compared to the rest of his face, like an old scar.

"How did that happen?" Dream Girl asked almost without thinking. Artemis stood and sat down in a desk, facing away from the girl.

"When I was 9, my class went on a field trip to a chemical plant. I was really excited-I mean, what nine year old wouldn't be excited by the though of seeing something be melted by acid?" She smiled at the image of a younger, happier Artemis. "We were taking a tour of the experimental chambers where they were working with some unstable chemicals. I got distracted when I was seeing one guy work with a chemical that froze fire, and I got a little behind the group. I heard an explosion from behind me, and I turned and ran toward it-I knew how to use my power, maybe I could help someone, you know? Anyway, I saw some guy there, and my dad and a few other cops were there. The guy had a detonator in his hand-wired for the chemical vats around us. I don't remember what they said exactly, but I remember him pushing the trigger and the room around us filling with liquid. I got splashed in the face with something that burned my eyes, then something hit me on the head and knocked me out."

"I woke up in the hospital a week later. When the doctor told me what had happened to my eyes…" He reached up and curled his finger around his glasses frame. Dream Girl walked over to him.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know." Artemis didn't turn towards her. "It's ok. I'm not bothered by talking about it. Really." He turned up toward her. "Besides, it really did open up a lot of opportunity to get better at using my gift and helping people. By the way, your arm healed up right, didn't it?" Dream Girl smiled. "It's fine. Will you be alright though?" She gently took his hand. He smiled. "I think so. Thank you." When she didn't answer, he just smiled a little wider. "Thank you for talking to me. It helped." She smiled. "You're welcome then."

* * *

Carter looked at the viewscreen at the apprentice. "Nice work. I'm impressed by the information you were able to dig up. And giving us the warning on Jags." He sighed and ran his hand over his bald skull. "A bit of a shame that we can't just kill him, but he's too valuable for that."

The apprentice grinned. "Glad to help master. But I don't know how much longer I can stay here." Carter turned to his apprentice, a raised eyebrow reminding him of his place.

"I don't know how much longer I can stay here without blowing my cover. One of the legionnaires is catching onto me. He refuses to let me go on missions, until I've had more training he claims" he took a moment to laugh at the irony "and he almost caught me in one of the legion computer ports before I could make the necessary arrangements to upload the spy virus."

Carter shrugged. "I think you know what to do. Just make sure it's clean and it doesn't raise a fuss. Make it look like an accident in combat. I'll have some of our allies come to New Metropolis come and help you out. Just get delta 2, drop the virus, and get out of there, and do it soon."

"Yes master. Apprentice out." The viewscreen blinked out. Carter laced his fingers behind his head and smiled. He had certainly made a good choice of apprentice.

**Well now. There's the end of that chapter. Don't worry, you'll find out more soon.**

**Questions, comments, or critism? There a little button in the left hand corner of the page that you can use to review thsi chapter. Please use more then sparingly.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hi peoples. I finally got over my writers' block (WOOHOO!!) and finally was able to write this chapter. I actually need to credit the inspiration for this chappie to a friend of mine who gave me the idea when I was suffering from writer's block.**

**A thank you to Kattin, DisasterCode7, and doombunny13-the last three people who have reviewed my story. Thanks guys!**

**I, Stormgirl, do not own LoSH, and wish that they would make a freaking third season, even though that's technically impossible... :p**

_An explosion rocked the ground that she stood on, making her fall. Above her, Persuader raised his ax, ready to bring it down on the helpless girl, when a blur of black slammed him away, giving her the chance to get up. She flew over and kicked Therock in the neck, making him fall back to be hit repeatedly by Triplicate Girl. Considering the fact that he had almost killed them when they were Duo Damsel, it seemed like they had a good reason to be kicking the stuffing out of him. She jumped back and fell into formation next to Phantom Girl and Lightning Lad, who was flying after Validus with orbs of lightning in his hands. She happened to look up at just that moment, to see a black haired, black clothed figure fighting Mano hand to hand, and a laser headed straight for his back…_

Dream Girl sat up quickly, breathing quickly. "No." She whispered to herself. There was no way she could let that happen. Then she frowned.

Who was it who was in trouble anyway? She hadn't seen his face, no hints as to whether it was one of the twins or Artemis, or for that matter, even when and where this was. She would hazard a guess at New Metropolis, maybe around sunset, but she wasn't sure when it was as far as a day or a specific place. She got up. If nothing else, she could pass on a warning to all three siblings. The only one of them she knew it definitely wasn't was Zephyr-and Zephyr wasn't even in the legion tower right then. She was with Timber Wolf and Bouncing Boy on security detail on the Brande industries stellar nursery.

Dream Girl walked out into the hall anyway, knowing that she had to see one of the siblings and warn either Shade or Artemis.

She was so deep in thought that she didn't hear anyone come up behind her until she felt something hard hit the back of her head. She collapsed on the ground, smelling something sickly-sweetish before she passed out, just seeing a vague blur of a person…

* * *

Lights. Bright white lights, directly above her. Dream Girl groaned as she sat up, touching her head. Why on earth did she have such a headache?

"Good. You're awake." She turned just a little too quickly, making her head throb even worse, to see Artemis standing there, smiling. She smiled a little, wondering why in the galaxy her stomach was suddenly all fluttery.

"Yeah, I guess it is a good thing I'm awake." Artemis sat down in the chair next to her. "Cham found you in the hallway outside of your room a couple hours ago. As far as I can determine, you suffered a hit in the head. Do you remember anything?" Dream Girl frowned, trying to remember, then she shook her head.

"Nothing. Maybe a little pain from when I got hit in the head, but I don't remember seeing anyone. But…" She hesitated. Artemis waited for a few moments before he inquired further. "But what?"

"I think I remember smelling something really sweet. Like disgustingly sweet, you know?" Artemis nodded. "That description could fit a multitude of things found in legion headquarters-and several that aren't. Why were you in the hall anyway?" Dream Girl frowned again.

"I….I think I had a dream….I think it was important…" Dream Girl sighed and threw her hands up. "I can't remember." Artemis gently took one of her heads. It still mystified her how he had such a good sense of where everything was.

"I'm sure it'll come to you after you've rested a little. If you don't mind though, I'd like to do some tests, just to see if we can find out what you smelled before you passed out." Dream Girl nodded and Artemis turned on the scanner. She laid back down as the bands of light passed over her.

"Hmm…" She sat back up as he listened to the results over a headset. "Well? What's wrong?" Artemis shook his head. "The scan revealed traces of a mystery gas in your hair. It isn't lining up with any of the fuels or vapors that we use in the legion….I'm going to run a few tests on this. Hopefully we'll be able to find out what it is."

* * *

Saturn Girl turned her head and smiled when Artemis and Dream Girl walked in. "Did everything go alright?" Artemis shrugged, then gestured to the data pad. "Well, she definitely got hit on the back of the head, but we also found traces of an unusual gas in her hair. I was hoping to run some tests on it to see if we can identify it." Before he could say anything else, someone else broke in.

"I can run the tests." Artemis turned his head in Shrinking Violet's direction. She shifted slightly under his unseen scrutiny. "I know how to run them more thoroughly then you, and I've had more experience using Computo then you." Artemis shrugged, then slid the data pad across the table in her direction. Brainy looked up from his own handheld unit.

"What are you working on Brainy?" He looked up at Phantom Girl. "I am running some scans on Computo. I believe someone may have accessed some of the high security files without knowledge of any others." Everyone stared at him. "I don't know how they would have managed it. That is why I am conducting the scan and going back through the histories of the files." Superman shrugged, then frowned.

"Artemis, where's Shade? I thought he was an early riser." Artemis sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "In bed. I think he ate some sesame at some point yesterday. He and Zephyr are allergic to the stuff. It's not serious, but he'll have the same symptoms of food poisoning for a couple days." He poured himself some milk, not spilling a drop, as Cham, Kid Quantum II, and Iceboy walked in. Cham slumped into his chair with a theatric sigh and KQII and Iceboy chuckled.

"I hate early morning monitor duty." Cham sighed. Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad exchanged a glance of amusement. Phantom Girl shook her head.

"Well Cham, maybe that's why you don't try and play practical jokes on Cosmic Boy." Artemis grinned. "Cham, what did you do?" Cham opened his mouth to answer, but not before Kid Quantum stepped in.

"Let's just say it had something to do with a springboard, pink hair dye, and a lemon meringue pie." Cham poured himself some cereal. "Well someone was gonna do it at some point."

Dream Girl tuned out Cham and Kid Quantum's debate about whether Cosmic Boy did or did not deserve to have a practical joke played on himself every now and then, closing her eyes and thinking back. There! A blurry outline of a person. Blond maybe? Brown hair?

"Oh come on KQ, your boyfriend is way to serious for something like that to happen and you can't deny that it wasn't a little funny!"

"He's not my boyfriend, he's just been showing me the ropes of Legion life." Dream Girl opened her eyes as they continued bickering. If one thing was certain, she wasn't going to get any thinking done while those two were talking.

"Sorry KQ, but I have to agree with Cham. Cos can be a stick in the mud sometimes." Saturn Girl gave Lightning Lad a slight slap on the arm. "What? It's true."

A quiet beeping sounded through the Legion headquarters. Brainy was the first one up and running into the main room to Computo.

"We've got a double attack on New Metropolis. The Fatal Five are ripping apart one of the commercial sectors, and the LSV are attacking a power plant." He turned back to Superman, waiting for a moment. It seemed as though when he was around, the Man of Steel was, in a way, their leader.

"Alright. Dream Girl, Triplicate Girl, Phantom Girl, Lightning Lad, Artemis, you take care of the Fatal Five. Kid Quantum, Iceboy, Saturn Girl, Cham, and I will take care of the LSV. Brainy and Violet, stay here and let us know if there are any more attacks. If a situation is getting out of hand, get out there." With that the groups flew out of the legion, ready to fight. Dream Girl had a sudden shiver as they left. She had a bad feeling about this. A really, really bad feeling.

* * *

Tyr smiled to himself as he continued to blast electrical wires. He hated it that he wasn't at the top of the chain of command, but even he had to admit that the deception of this plan was sheer genius. He heard a familiar whooshing in the air.

"Right on cue." He muttered to himself. He turned and pointed the laser at the oncoming Superman, then jumping up and slamming him away with his metal arm. Esper immediately fired a mind ray at Saturn Girl, who managed to deflect it before firing one of her own. Cham became a centaur-like creature, slamming straight into Hunter, who knocked him off with a blast from his staff. Wave took her cue and flew farther into the complex, leading Kid Quantum II and Iceboy deeper into the labyrinth. Tyr blasted at Superman. Although he couldn't hurt the man of steel, he could press him back and keep him occupied. Tyr smiled grimly. _Well, that's all I need to do._

No one noticed that, out of the labyrinth of the power plant, a figure flew out, away from the fight. One that was definitely not Wave.

* * *

Lightning Lad led the way towards the fatal five, who were busy demolishing a building block. Dream Girl shivered. Something about all this seemed awfully. She landed, only to fall forward as an explosion rocked the ground. Persuader came down over her, ready to bring down his ax, when Artemis ran past and slammed into the much larger man, knocking him down and giving Dream Girl a chance to escape. Therock was starting to fire at her. She diver down and landed in front of him, kicking him in the neck over to Triplicate Girl. She rose up and fell into formation behind Phantom Girl and Lightning Lad, who was going after Validus with streaks of lightning erupting from his hands. Suddenly it hit Dream Girl.

_My dream._ She thought to herself. She froze in midair, then looked over to see Artemis fighting Mano in hand-to-hand combat. Behind him, on the roofs of one of the buildings, a figure whose outline was blurred and fuzzed from some sort of electrical shield fired a few shots. Straight at Artemis, who was in a stalemate with Mano.

Dream Girl flew straight at him. "Look out!" She slammed into him, knocking him out of the way, before she felt pain in her side and in her right arm and leg, causing her to crash into the ground. She looked down. Three small neat holes riddled her body, one in her arm, one in the leg, and one in her side. She lay on the ground, letting unconscious take her.

_Why didn't I see this coming?_

* * *

Artemis watched Dream Girl fall from the shots that were ment originally for him. He jumped up and threw Mano back, looking for the shooter, but not seeing anything but a few concerned legionnaires who were landing around Dream Girl. Artemis knelt beside her and felt over the wound in her side. Blood was coming from it, he could tell from the scent, and Dream Girl had lost a lot of it from all three holes.

"We've got to get her back to headquarters. Now."

* * *

Superman heard his legion alert go off just as the LSV teleported away. He sighed and hit it. "Lightning Lad, what's going on?"

"Dream Girl is injured. Badly. The Fatal Five just took off after she was hit. Anyone on your end badly hurt?"

Superman looked around, then realized something. "Where are Iceboy and Kid Quantum?" Cham turned into a dog and sniffed for their scent, following it until the legionnaires found an unconscious Kid Quantum and Iceboy trapped under a piece of metal facing away from her. Wave was nowhere to be seen.

"Kid Quantum is unconscious, but she'll recover. We'll meet you back at headquarters."

* * *

Brainy looked up from his scanners as Superman and Saturn Girl walked in. Phantom Girl and Lightning Lad already stood there, looking into the medical center as Artemis was scanning over Dream Girl.

"What's the latest on Dream Girl?" Superman asked, concerned. He always cared about injured legionnaires first. Brainy ran his fingers through his hair-a new habit he had picked up as a human.

"Right now it's difficult to tell. The lasers that went through her arm and leg didn't do any serious damage-a little bit of attention from Artemis was all it took to fix them. But right now we're worried about the one in her side. Scanners indicate that it fractured her rib and skimmed a lung. Artemis is doing everything he can right now to fix it, but from what he said-and from previous medical studies-anything involving lungs, nerves, the brain, sensitive organs like that were much more uncertain then a broken bone. She's stayed level for awhile now, but…" He set his hands on the desk in a gesture of not knowing. Violet set a hand on his shoulder and he smiled faintly up at her. Superman looked into the medical bay. Dream Girl was just laying there, a painkiller dripping through a tube connected to her wrist, and an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose. Artemis has a set of headphones on, most likely listening to Computo's scans, carefully going over the area multiple times.

* * *

Artemis set his hands over her wound. It wasn't pretty. The laser shot had cleanly sliced through muscle and hit the bone, cracking it. A tiny hole had been punctured in her lung. Even a tiny hole like that could badly affect Dream Girl if she recovered. She had already lost a lot of blood-he wanted to wait until she had been fixed before injecting the transfusion. He felt his eyes close-another useless gesture. In his minds eye, weak and colorless as it was, focused in on the hole.

"Come on, come on." He muttered to himself. Finally, tiny bits of lung tissue started to grow, carefully stitching itself together. As it finished, he focused on everything else. Muscle started to grow over and replace the burned area, and bone pulled itself together. Finally, he pulled his hands away, revealing a small patch of smooth skin. He hooked up the transfusion, then sat back, exhausted.

Shade walked in. "How are you?" Artemis turned his head toward his brother. "A little tired, but that's to be expected. It appears as though you are recovering."

Shade nodded. "Still can't eat anything heavily spiced without feeling ill, but I'm on the mend." He looked at the unconscious girl. "Will she be ok."

"I think so, but she is still very weak. Right now the best thing for her is rest." He stood and staggered to the side a little. "Let me help you." Artemis leaned on his brother a bit as Shade helped him leave, letting Dream Girl sleep.

* * *

Artemis and Shade walked into the main room where Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Brainy, and Violet sat. Shade assumed everyone else was looking into the wreckage sites.

"She'll live. She needs time to recover, but she'll live." The breath that everyone had been holding relaxed, and Saturn Girl smiled before getting up and helping Artemis get to a chair. "I don't need help, thank you very much!" Artemis said, sitting down in a seat crossly. Shade shrugged in apology to the girl. What could you do?

"This is interesting." Brainy said from his station at Computo. "From what I've been able to determine from the holos, it appears as though the intended victim of the shots was supposed to be Artemis himself." Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl drifted over to Brainy and Violet, and Artemis sat up bolt straight. "What?"

Brainy zoomed out the scene, revealing the course of the lasers when Artemis was fighting Mano. Then he entered a couple of equations, overlaying the scene with the trajectories of the laser blasts. "Had she not pushed you out of the way, it appears as though the lasers would have hit your heart, head, and lung, effectively killing you." Brainy turned to face the others. Shade started pacing. "It was a set up. But why would someone want to kill Artemis?"

"Gee, thanks for making me feel important." Shade frowned at said boy, knowing he couldn't see anyway. "You know what I mean."

"Well, who was shooting?" Was Lightning Lad's question. Brainy typed commands into Computo, revealing a person hidden behind an electrical shield. "I'm not sure. Whatever device they were using to create this shield is very complex. None of the scans I've tried have been able to leave an image anywhere near clear enough to identify this person."

"Even the laser isn't giving us a clue about who it was. We can't see what type of blaster it is, and the fired shots are universal to almost 20 different kinds." Violet said glumly. Brainy nodded in agreement.

"Great. So we have no idea who that was?"

"Unfortunately, no. We'll have to continue doing scans, and it probably wouldn't hurt if Saturn Girl could do mind probs during patrol to see if we find anything.

Everyone nodded. Artemis sat back, wondering what was going on that made him such a threat.

* * *

Dream Girl did not move a muscle as a figure walked into the room from an air vent. Even if she had been awake, she most likely wouldn't have seen a figure enter the room. The cloaking device they were using was one of the best money could buy-courtesy of a member of the Alliance.

The figure stood next to the bed, unseen, unheard. Then from an invisible pocket, they pulled out a tube with a tiny amount of yellow liquid in it. They placed it against the bag holding the blood transfusion, letting the molecules sink through the plastic and reform-completely concealed-on the other side. They pulled away the syringe when the liquid ran out and slid it back in their pocket.

A noise came from outside, and Saturn Girl walked through, coming to check on her friend. By the time she walked in, the figure had left the room.

**Bwahaha, cliffhanger! Well, sort of anyway. **

**Peoples, I would really appreciate reviews. They help me with my writing and I can actually work with them to make my stories better, plus it tells me that you guys actually like my story and I'm not just writing to cater to the little voices in my head. So review please! **


	14. Chapter 14

A tall, dark man slipped down the alley, the thump of his boots hidden by the thumping and grinding of machines pounding away at adamantium. He was almost seven feet tall and built like a man who worked out quite a bit. Glancing backwards, he made a preliminary sweep, keeping an eye out for his contact. After all, his contact had picked the location. Eyeing the place once more, the hulking man thought about how fortunate he was that there were no cops skulking around. Still, the clanking 'bots, piles of trash and practically nonexistent lighting added to the overall nastiness of this 'hood. He could probably tattoo his name on his chest and scream it from the nearest roof, and still the police wouldn't dare venture into this part of town to catch him.

"You're late," A voice hissed in the semi-darkness. The tall man spun, terror clawing at his chest like a ravenous beast. At the head of the alley, a smaller man lounged atop an overhead pipe. One leg was casually propped up, the other hung down the side, swinging idly. A thin blade was balanced on the tip of the smaller man's finger.

"I had to get away from da boss. He wouldn't a let me get out of there otderwise." the Big man said, swallowing jerkily. True, he'd agreed to meet his old 'friend' here, but the shorter man scared him. Especially the way he stared at him, unblinkingly, like he could see right through the big man. Those slitted eyes seemed to be looking into his mind, penetrating right to the soul. The smaller man's eyes revealed his icy determination, and a veiled threat of what could happen if the big man failed to deliver.

Jumping down from the pipe, Carter landed like a cat, light on his feet. The blade he held in his fingers remained completely steady. "I didn't come here to exchange pleasantries, Bane. I came to make a deal. All I need is some information and some cooperation from your gang."

"Oh yeah? And what'ch ya gonna pay for it?" the big man demanded in an attempt to sound unafraid.

Carter shrugged noncommittally. Reaching into a coat pocket he drew out a small bag and casually tossed it across the alley to Bane. The bigger man unwrapped the package, and his eyes widened. Sparkling sapphires glittered in the bag, along with computer chips, rolls of data sheet, and credit tags. He picked up one credit tag and a data sheet. The amount on the tag was enough to impress even a hardened mobster like him, and the schematics on the data sheets…..Bane grinned at what they would mean before closing the bag and looking back up at Carter, the smaller man's face calm and impassive. "So, what'd ya say ya needed?"

******

Superman flew into the bridge of the battle cruiser, the wide window of space opening up before him. Brainy sat at the navigation station across the room from Bouncing Boy, who was piloting the vessel. Phantom Girl was looking over a few schematics, and Saturn Girl was turning off a video screen, looking just a little irritated. Timber Wolf and Star Boy were elsewhere on the ship.

"Everything going alright, Saturn Girl?" Superman asked.

"Everything is fine Superman, just having to deal with a few things." Saturn Girl assured him. Before she could elaborate, an alarm went off. A few moments later, Timber Wolf and Star Boy flew into the room.

"What's going on?" Timberwolf demanded.

"It appears as though a gang on Orando is blowing up a S.T.A.R. laboratory." Brainy replied, quickly pulling up some video imaging. A group of gigantic, heavily muscled men with enormous guns were opening fire on the lab.

"The lab has its shields up, but with all the artillery this gang is using against them, the shields probably won't be holding up much longer."

"Is there any information about who these guys are?" Timber Wolf asked, always the practical one.

"For all intents and purposes, it appears to be the Serpents again. It's possible they are working with the Alliance in this case," Brainy answered.

Superman looked back up at the screen, and the destruction it showed. "Then we'd better stop them before they get what they want."

******

"Like taking candy from a baby, ain't it?" A scrawny, cocky little man said, smirking as he led the gang through the decimated doorway of the S.T.A.R. lab. Beside him, a much larger man frowned. \

"Take it easy. We just need to smash everything in this place." He reached under a desk and pulled out a terrified scientist. Lifting her by the collar and holding a blaster to her head, he bared his teeth. She paled instantly and swallowed hard.

"Please, don't hurt me, I beg of you…." She began shaking, and her eyes began to water.

"Yeah, right lady, we don't want no trouble," Bane scoffed.

"Well, then you should have been looking somewhere else," said a raspy voice, filled with quiet menace.

Bane glanced up just as a gray wolf about his size leaped up and slammed right into him, throwing him to the ground as he released the scientist. A whitish glow surrounded her as she floated over to another part of the room, courtesy of Star Boy.

The scrawny man pulled out a small cannon with an automatic targeting system, setting his sights on the darker boy. Suddenly, a double set of laser disks slammed into the ground around him, raising clouds of dust and blocking the cannon. The man coughed, then looked up. A slender, green skinned teenager had his hands pointed at him, thin lasers popping out of the arm of the suit he wore.

Just then a blast of lasers scorched through the room. At the entrance, several Serpents began firing on the Legionnaires, catching them in a potentially deadly crossfire. Brainy immediately pulled up a shield, and some of the legionnaires stepped behind it. Superman launched forward and fired his heat vision, knocking back three or four of the armored gangsters in one motion. Phantom Girl rose up from the floor behind two of them and stuck her hand through their torsos, short-circuiting the suits they wore and knocking them unconscious. Two more of the gangsters fell, moaning and holding their heads as Saturn Girl projected a mental blast at them.

Just like that, the fight was over. Bouncing Boy was waiting outside, a small pile of gangsters laying on the pavement in front of the building, all unconscious.

"Well, that was easy." Bouncing Boy said brightly as the Science Police arrived to take away the criminals. Just then one of the gangsters laughed, the big guy Timber Wolf had taken out.

"You ain't seen nuttin yet," he snarled, a small detonator popping out of his sleeve. Before anyone had a chance to stop him, he pressed the detonate button. Simulteneously, the gangsters disappeared and an inferno flushed out from the corridor into the main room, headed for the legionnaires.

"Get back!" Superman shouted before taking in a deep breath and releasing his freezing breath. The fire stopped in its tracks, the flames frozen into their shapes. It took everyone a minute to regain their bearings.

"What was that all about?" Timber Wolf asked, the first to recover from the initial shock. Another transmission came in, and Brainy frowned. "There's an attack on the other side of town, at the hospital." Brainy informed the legionnaires as they launched into the sky.

"Why would they attack a hospital? Is there someone there they could be after?" Phantom Girl wondered aloud. Star Boy shook his head as he glanced over several schematics and lists as they flew.

"There's no one really big listed here. This makes no sense. Why would they attack a hospital?"

"I think we're about to find out," Bouncing Boy said, pointing out a billowing smoke coming out of the hospital. "But first, we've got to get those people out of there."

"Phantom Girl, you help the firefighters get those people out of there, your powers will be able to rescue injured people before they suffocate. Everyone else, let's go find out what our friends are up to." Superman uttered the orders quickly before flying into the building ahead of the rest of the legionnaires. Saturn Girl's eyes lit up.

"They're in the center of the hospital, in some of the reconstruction labs. It feels like there's only three of them." Bouncing Boy and Timber Wolf exchanged a glance. Why only send three people?

Superman burst through two doors, knocking it back into the room itself, where it clattered at the feet of three people who they knew all too well. One man was the big one from the attack on the lab, his smirk still etched onto his face. Another man wore a black suit and a mask with green eyeholes, a length of chain twisted in his hands- Grimbor. The third man, who was calmly pulling electrical wires out of the wall, was Carter Snake-Eyes. As the legionnaires entered the room, he turned around lazily, his expression almost bored.

"Oh how droll. The heroes come to save the day again. Grimbor, Bane, if you would, please." Neither of the henchmen really needed the encouragement. Bane jumped forward and smashed his hands into the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked back Timber Wolf and Bouncing Boy.

"Since did this guy get super strength?" Star Boy asked, a little incredulous as he made Bane light as air. Bane floated back against a wall, then pushed off it, his momentum sending him spiraling through the air. Star Boy ducked before letting Bane drop again, this time making Bane as heavy as lead. The man's feet sank into the floor, but he still kept coming, punching at Star Boy, Timber Wolf, and Bouncing Boy, who had recovered by then.

Saturn Girl swooped down from the ceiling, aiming a mental blast at Grimbor. The man yelped at the sudden mental pressure, but whipped one of his chains around and caught Saturn Girl around the midsection, yanking her to the floor. She hit with a soft 'oof'. Grimbor raised another one of the chains to knock her out, but before he could bring it down, he felt the weight disappear from his hand. Looking back, the chain had been melted just a couple inches before his hand. Brainiac 5 lowered his blaster, and before he could react, Grimbor pulled out another length of chain. Spinning it before letting it wrap around Brainy, it let loose an electrical shock from the nano-generators imbedded in the chain. Brainy hit the ground, stunned from the shock. The voltage hadn't been high enough to kill him, or even knock him out, but it was enough to temporarily paralyze him. Grimbor turned toward the green-skinned teen for a moment, then stumbled forward after a kick in the back from Saturn Girl. Grimbor turned and grabbed her arm, throwing her back and hitting Bouncing Boy, slamming them both into a wall.

Superman flew straight at Carter, who stood from his position of kneeling on the floor. From one pocket, he pulled out a small blaster and fired it, letting a net spin through the air, wrapping around Superman. It began glowing green as the man of steel fell to the floor.

"What the-"

"Tyrilium fibers laced with kryptonite. Not enough to seriously incapacitate you, but enough to make doing this much easier." With that Carter gave a quick jab to the side of Superman's neck, hitting a particularly sensitive nerve that, while before wouldn't have even fazed the man of steel, now hurt badly enough to temporarily knock him out.

Timber Wolf turned away from Bane to see what was going on, only to feel two hard fists slam down onto his back, knocking him to the ground. Star Boy jumped back as Bane took more swings at him, then fell to the floor as a sharp pain went through his neck. Carter let his hand drop, still appearing disinterested in the events taking place. Behind him, Grimbor turned away from a chain-wrapped Saturn Girl.

"Do you have everything you need now, Carter?" he asked.

A faint smile played along the man's lips. "Almost. I just need to deliver a message now." Turning to Saturn Girl, he knelt beside her. "Listen well, Saturn Girl, because I won't repeat this twice. All of the Legion's attempts to stop the Alliance are futile, and I can assure you that I am not play-acting, unlike most of the villains you face. Either stop fighting our organization, or you and the rest of the legion will lose everything you care about, everyone you've ever held dear, and every ideal you have ever fought for will be worth nothing. Stand down, or this will come to pass."

With that he leaned over and pressed a hand to a pressure point in the telepath's neck. Pain exploded from the spot. By the time Saturn Girl had overcome it, all three men were gone.

******

"Did we ever find out what they did take from the hospital?" Bouncing Boy asked, rubbing the bump on the back of his head with a wince. After the fight Phantom Girl had found them all and they had been transported to a recovery wing. Thankfully they were all fine other then a few scrapes and bruises, and those would heal quickly.

Brainy nodded. "The hospital took inventory of all the equipment stored in those rooms. One neurological repair chamber, two biolink power couplets, a regrowth chamber… …basically a bunch of components needed to facilitate the repairs of the body."

"Do you have any idea what they could be wanting with that technology?" Phantom Girl asked quietly, standing next to Timber Wolf, who was holding an icepack to his forehead much to his own annoyance.

Brainy shook his head. "I don't know, but whatever it is, it can't be good."

******

Carter set the stolen equipment on the lab tables, leaving it for Tharock and Dr. Londo to assemble. Another man stood with him, looking over the technology and nodding with approval.

"I'm glad to see that someone in this organization can do their job properly. You've done well. Now we can go about starting Project Alpha Beta." The man's lip twisted. "Or rather, we would be able to, seeing as your apprentice has yet to deliver the samples from subject T1."

Carter grimaced. "I can assure you sir, my apprentice will deliver soon. The consequences for failing are a good reminder of why we do not fail."


End file.
